We had a few firsts in Mui Ne. It was our first Vietnam beach town, our first moto hire, first puncture, first descent rip off and my first real desert experience.
To begin, the moto. Andy decided to give an manual a shot, and was surprised to find there's no clutch on these beasties. Is that the norm? Not sure. I always thought Harleys have clutches? Anyway, he took to it really well, and soon we were living our Vietnam easy rider dream thundering (as much as a little moto can) around the stunning coast line.
The freedom was great, we've been cooped up so much public transport and tours that I'd forgotton how grand it is to be your own master. We toured the countryside, stopping off at some local fishing spots to get a look see at the traditional painted boats with bold yellow, red, and blue stripes across the sides and two big eyes painted on the stern. There were hundreds of them. We also stopped at a cemetry facing out to the sea with stone plots painted bright blue, green and pink all pastel bursting out of the red sand earth. Stunning. The area reeked of kodak moments as awkward as we felt about it.
We continued our tour 25km out to the white sand dunes where you can hire plastic boards off local kids to ride the huge dunes on your belly. Unfortunately this is where our back tyre blew out! Andy did well to control the bike which fish tailed a little and brought it to a stop. SHIT. It was super duper hot and we were on top of a hill god knows where. Not a good feeling.
So we took it off the road and walked to the next town, luckily not too far off. Promptly we found a 'honda' shop - painted on a piece of cardborad hanging from a tree. It was a home made tin shack with a man sleeping in a hammock and a monkey chained to the side. Excellent.
20 mins later we were back on the road $200,000 dong lighter. It turns out it should have only been $20,000D but them's the breaks, I should have batered, I should have asked the man to call our resort to negotiate payment, but instead we were so happy to get it sorted we didnt really stop to think. Good news is $200,000D is about $15NZD and the hotel came to the party of a quater of this after some major battles.
So we continued on, out to the dunes along a dirt road with a oasis on our right, spattered with pink lotus blooms and palm trees, and another stunning cemetry on our left. A kid waved us down shouting 'whi san doon!' and we hired his mats and headed out to the desert on foot.
Worst call ever. It was noon, it was dry, it was hot beyond belief, and the dunes unknowingly were about 15 mins walk away. The walk out was hard, instantly I lagged behind Andy, my hobbit legs cursing my advance. every full step turned to a quarter as my feet sank into the sand. the sun pounded down, and the incline of the dunes was soon upon us. It was a stunning sight, cliffs of white sand against a bright blue sky, wind whipping over the tops making little sand fountains that curled around the peaks. Whatever. This was wasted on me as the sun had sapped my energy and patience along with it.
As we climbed the wind picked up and soon we were being thrashed by sand - yes girls - microderm abrasion, sun bedding and sauna all in one! Microderm abrasion on the eyeballs though, not so fun.
Soon we reached the top of the ridge and gave surfing a go. Andy started out really slow, tossing sand up making watching him impossible. I lay down on the slope, face first, but no movement. The sand was washing over me as the wind scattered over the top of the dune. It was about 50% air 50% sand. Eyes closed, mouth closed. I started getting desperate and flapped myself round like a dying seal to get some traction and get out of the sand stream. Woosh! Suddenly i was flying down with my feet out trying to slow it down! Andy was like a target in my sights, smiling away, till he realised the trajectory and leapt aside, a near miss.
It was fun for 15 seconds, but effort vs reward, no way worth it! Getting back out of the valley was harder still, the incline was greater, the sun was hotter, I was hotter, basically a sand crusted beast. On the second ascent I was pathetic, every two minutes i had to stop to let the energy return to my weakened thighs. It was a strange feeling, i wasnt tired, or panting, my sweat was dry by the sun and sand, but i had absolutely no energy or muscle to get up the hill, forced to move at a snails pace.
When i finaly did make it i resolved to retreat, Andy however decided to give it one more go after his dismal beginning. Bad call. When i saw him again at the top of the next ridge his face was red with blood, his eyes lost, his feet heavy. Way worse than i had been. My eyes were spotted with the begginings of a faint so we headed back. I am proud to admit during our exhaustive walk back i still managed to be a green kiwi and pick up the scattered cigarette packets across the sand. Some people eh, littering in the desert! i dont know.
When we made it back to the roadside stand, I collapsed and inhaled a big bottle of water. The kid took Andy around the back and cooled him Vietnamese style with buckets of well water. He even even soaped his head. What a sight!! I took photos but they do the moment no justice. I'm sure the kid thought it was all pretty funny. ...ha ....ha ...ha
Lesson - deserts are ridiculously hot and punishing, and desert sports are generally a bad idea. Go figure.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Good morning Vietnam!!!
Haha - sorry about the title, so cheesy but so hard to resist!
We've been here 8 days and covered three very different areas: First Saigon, big city, moto madness with a power cable sky; then Mui Ne, a stunning little fishing village grown by the tourist industry into a halfway there resort destination; and now Dalat, way up in the mountains, a refreshingly cool, clean, forested town with coffee plantations, and vineyards galore- bliss.
So - first Saigon, we spent our time divided between city exploring and war history.
The city was like a cross between Singapore and Bangkok. Clean and green in many parts like Singapore with actual, walkable sidewalks unlike most of Cambodia, and spacious parks on every few blocks, but also chaotic like BKK with the famed motorbike mania, and where biggest cars on the road gets the right of way.
Still a lot of poor people about but not half as many as BKK or 1/4 as many as Cambodia. Their tactics were different too. Instead of straight begging they offered packs of gum or packs of tissues in exchange. Maybe this made it legal practise so they could enter the retaurant and approach you mid mouthful, which they did. Don't know. What was new was women carrying their kids while begging as a heartstring yanker. Argh.
So on the war side of things we covered two tourist destinations, the Cu Chi tunnels and the War Remnants Museum.
The Museum was hard going, particularly the section on chemical weapons. Agent Orange, Phospherous and Napalm. The graphic photos of the effects are no short of horrific. To use weapons like those is a kind of heartlesness I am scared to admit exists, and seeing the effect on the people made me angry, nauseus and sad at once. I don't know if it has phappened already but I hope the US has recognised and apologised for what they did and are effectively still doing here, due to residual chemicals, and also beyond Vietnam, scattered over the border into Laos and Cambodia.
Napalm, Agent Orange, Phosperuos and Cluster bombs rained down on VC guerillas, civillians and neighbouring countries alike during the war . The effects are still felt today, with those that still bear the scars, walking the streets I saw, but also with birth defects from Agent Orange and ecosystem damage predicted to last for hundreds of years to come. Disgusting.
We also visited the Cu Chi tunnels, crawled through some, saw the bamboo traps, B52 bomb craters, heard guns cracked off by enthusiastic tourists (not us), and watched some genuine propoganda videos from the 1960's. Brett, you would have loved the Life Aquatic style backing music to this, I of course filmed some for you.
The tunnels were amazing. We were standing there chatting to the guide about the tunnels, and she asked, 'where do you think they are?' I smartly pointed to the ground, like derr, right under our feet, she conceeded, then asked 'but how do you enter?'...we looked round, could see the widened openings with step ladders for the tourists and pointed to those. She grinned, kicked the dirt from under her feet to expose a very very small wood lid. It was about the length of my shoulders and the width of my forearm. (photo to come). wow. She lept in, then Andy, then me. Easy going in, awkward coming out as you need to put your arms up to get out, or your shoulders will be too broad.
I then witnessed a worst nightmare come true... everyone was giving the hole a go, and lots of the girls worried they wouldnt fit. there was one, genuinly concerned but the guide encouraged her she'd be fine. she wasnt. she got stuck!
It was horrible, going in was ok, but as she tried to get out she got jammed. She started freaking in that so very awkard joking manner, half laughing, half shrieking about her 'damned fat ass' and profusely apologising to everyone for holding them up. it was hard to watch and hard to resist the little red guy on my shoulder pushing me to take a photo! in the end, Andy and a ex US soldier turned bagel eating bohemith yanked her out using her pants as wedgy leverage. she wont be forgetting that in a hurry, poor gal!
The propaganda here is subtle to the Vietnamese I imagine, but rings clear for us. One of the stories we heard from our passionate, freindly and oh so eccentric tour guide was: '2 million American Imperialists were killed at the Cu Chi tunnels!' .... We found this strange and questioned this with her at the time only to have it repeated back to us, strange because only 1.4 million millitary personel were killed in total during the entire Vietnam War, and 6% of this figure were US troops. I also felt the propoganda vibe at the War Remnants Museum where they exposed the torture and massacres the US carried out on the VC which is something that should be brought to light and remebered but I couldnt help but feel uncomfortable with the one sided natureof the story telling.
YUCK YUCK YUCK
I know that I am just a babe in the woods and know little about what went on here which is a good thing for my sanity, and too hard to imagine anyway. But what has resounded for me both in early days in Vietnam and throughout my Cambodia experience is that we are a scary, ruthless species when driven to it. I keep thinking to myself, wow, how could this have happened, how could someone make that decision, or phsically do that, but at the same time having waves of realisation that it is still happening all over the world in different manners in diferent stories, that are talked about like histories.
Nicer post coming soon, promise. We're off on a hired moto today to explore Dalat today. Going to check out some coffee plantations and waterfalls.There are loads of tours, even our lovely hotel manager offeringto take us on a private tour of his village but due to our budget and and our desire to get away from the tourist buses and regimented timetables will opt for independant moto travel.
Andy - the enigma at the mo - is considering posting at some point soon. I can report he's loving the trip and is particulrly excited about Dalat. Within a few minutes of being here he was trying to figure out an extra day into our schedule to stay here longer. it's funny, in our last days in Cambodia we were both feeling like skipping Vietnam and going straight to Jordan as we were feeling like a big change but now we realise there is so much to see here and so little time!
I have a ridiculous amount of photos to upload but not computer fit enough to upload them.
Oh and thanks for the comments I can see have been posted but frustratingly I cant view them. Dont know whats going on but I can post using the back end of this site but I cant view my blog....ever since we hit Vietnam. strange eh.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Ending Cambodia
We're now in the former 'Saigon' now called 'Ho Chi Minh' after the war...whatever you prefer. Me the former, not for any deep reason just the beauty of of the word. I'm surprised to hear most people calling it Saigon still, mainly tourists mind you, not sure of what the locals think of that carry on. Already I miss that local perspective we were blessed with in Cambodia from Rach here. It's hard to know what's really going and how people really feel as we skate along the tourist surface. In our first Communist country.
It's our last night in Saigon tonight and our last with Rach. Tomorrow we head north and she heads back to Cambodia. Sad. We have had an excellent time and will miss our third amigo lots.
Now, before I get into this I must admit that I've been blog slack of late so will try and catch you up the best I can. It's a deadly cycle not updating, the longer I leave it, the more experiences we have, and the harder it is to accurately tell the tale of our adventures, as my mind and literally body has moved on. I shall do my best. Hurrah!
It's our last night in Saigon tonight and our last with Rach. Tomorrow we head north and she heads back to Cambodia. Sad. We have had an excellent time and will miss our third amigo lots.
Now, before I get into this I must admit that I've been blog slack of late so will try and catch you up the best I can. It's a deadly cycle not updating, the longer I leave it, the more experiences we have, and the harder it is to accurately tell the tale of our adventures, as my mind and literally body has moved on. I shall do my best. Hurrah!
Essentially the highlights are as follows....
1. Fairy bread for the orphans!
We wanted our last visit to the kiddies in Cambodia to be special and somehow kiwi so decided on spoiling them with fairy bread! Who would've thought all the neccesary ingredients would be at a Phnom Penh supermarket!?When we arrived at the orphanage we were warmly greeted by the one Brett named 'hip hop', due to his sweet hip hop branded top in our first photos. Hip Hop ran up to and proceeded to leap up on Andy when he saw him. Aww..... I was second best but also got a giant hug. He is so warm and affectionate compared to the other kids, and also so young. Jokes about adoption were flying that afternoon for both Hip Hop and 'Calvin' (I named after Calvin from Calvin and Hobbs as he is such mischief and in his own admirable world half the time).
I now understand Angelina...
As for the fairy bread we had to make it with the kids spoons and serve it in their personal bowls as that was all we had available. They had never seen anything like it. Logically the kiddies proceeded to eat the strange rainbow bread goodness like soup with their spoons out of their bowls instead of picking it up. He he. This was only however after everyone had a piece in front of them as these tiddlywinks have great manners.
After spoiling their dinner we played volleyball with the older kids (Cambodia's unofficial national sport). Great fun and totally friendly, they were just happy to play. No competition or scoring at all, like a weekend at the summer bach.
We were sad to go but so glad to meet them and experience what we did. Truly unique. I'd love to go back in the future and see how they are getting on. Return journeys with Rach have been discussed!
A few photos but not many as the connection here is crapola. Will update them later on.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37213&l=b2e7f&id=694561720
2. Leaving Cambodia - local style
We agreed to give local transport a go instead of the comfy buses or cars the standard traveler use for a true Cambodian travel experience.
This comes in first equal for me as far as the local transport experience, with the 'taxi' ride we experienced to Svey Rieng. This is where they fit 4 in the back and 4 in the front. Impossible you say....not if you put 4 in the back, two in the passenger seat and one under the driver! He sits on their lap, and proceeds to drive for several hours over some pretty crazy roads. Wacko but cost efficient.
But I digress, back to the border trip.
We walked laden in the heat to the market where we asked the locals in broken Khmer where their goods trucks were going and when. We found one heading to the VN border at 10am. It was only just over an hour away so we agreed to go for it and settled into some cards at a drinks stand.
We soon had about ten spectators watching our game and giggling away at us, trying to suss the game and get the odd chat in. It was the highlight for me, just all hanging out trying to communicate. Unfortunately 10am turned to 10.30 to 11.00 to 11.30 and we were off near to noon. That's the downside, you're in the hands of the driver who needs to fill the truck to make the journey worthwhile. He did his best but it was a long, hot wait.
We sat in the back of the truck which we shared with shared several other khmer, 2 scooters, massive bags of bags of oozing produce, and three body bag sized bunches of lotus flowers. Nothing goes to waste with those plants, the flowers for decoration, the seed heads for chewing (yummy nutty goodness), the stems used in noodle soup like a celery of sorts, and the roots for chewing. Again with the digressing. It was a cool experience and a fitting farewell to Cambodia, traveling with the locals in their mode of transport.
We soon hit the border hot and ready, and after some time in the lines and some bribary observed we were in Vietnam!!
The first thing I noticed was the lush green fields. They have irrigation. The second was the lack of roadside rubbish. They have a organised rubbish system. Cambodia lacks both of these.
The next thing was the bikes and masses of power cables. I thought I had seen some pretty amazing masses of both of these in Thailand but Nam takes the cake. The power cables threaten to choke out the sun on some corners.
....I have way more to say but I am running low on brain juice and desperately need 'lunner'....my new phrase for lunch and dinner combined. A naughty habit we've picked up with the lack of structured days and lunch times and late rises.
Oh the life.
Keep those comments going - love hearing from you all!
Rach - the coffee is even better here! strong and fresh! I see why you rave about it now.
xxx
Monday, May 19, 2008
Our Itinerary
Travel Itinerary For:MR ANDREW LOWE MS EMMELINE JOHANSEN ---------------
Thought I should let you know the detials incase anyone decides to join the expedition?
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Our Flights:
Hong Kong 12-Apr 1
Thailand 13-Apr 21
Cambodia 4-May 28
Vietnam 1-Jun 16
Jordan 17-Jun 5
Egypt 22-Jun 18
Israel 10-Jul 21
Jordan 31-Jul 1
Greece 1-Aug 10
Spain 11-Aug 1
Morocco 12-Aug 13
Spain 25-Aug 6
France 31-Aug 8
Italy 8-Sep 8
France 16-Sep 1
Portugal 17-Sep 12
Spain 29-Sep 1
Guatemala 30-Sep 19
Cuba 19-Oct 21
Chile 9-Nov 3
Ecuador 12-Nov 2
Galapagos 14-Nov 7
Ecuador 21-Nov 7
Peru 28-Nov 14
Bolivia 12-Dec 21
Chile 2-Jan 5
Argentina 7-Jan
Uruguay 27-Feb 10
Brazil 9-Mar 29
Chile 7-Apr 2
Detailed Europe itinerary:
Aug 1 – Athens, Greece
Aug 2-7 - Naxos, Greece
Aug 8,9,10 – Athens, Greece
Aug 11 – Madrid, Spain
Aug 12-24 – Morocco
Aug 25 – Algeciras, Spain
Aug 26,27 – Valencia, Spain
Aug 28,29,30 – Barcelona, Spain
Aug 31 – Perpignan, France
Sep 1,2 – Cognac, France
Sep 3,4 Paris, France
Sep 5 – Pierrelatte, France
Sep 6,7 – Cannes, France
Sep 8,9 – Venice, Italy (My birthday!)
Sep 10,11 – Montepulciano, Italy
Sep 12,13,14 – Rome, Italy
Sep 15 – Savona, Italy
Sep 16 – Lourdes, France
Sep 17 – Braganca, Portugal
Sep 18,19 – Porto, Portugal
Sep 20-24 – Rio Maior, Portugal (Andy's birthday!)
Sep 25 – Marvao, Portugal
Sep 26,27,28 – Lisbon, Portugal
Sep 30 – Madrid, Spain
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thought I should let you know the detials incase anyone decides to join the expedition?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Our Flights:
Hong Kong 12-Apr 1
Thailand 13-Apr 21
Cambodia 4-May 28
Vietnam 1-Jun 16
Jordan 17-Jun 5
Egypt 22-Jun 18
Israel 10-Jul 21
Jordan 31-Jul 1
Greece 1-Aug 10
Spain 11-Aug 1
Morocco 12-Aug 13
Spain 25-Aug 6
France 31-Aug 8
Italy 8-Sep 8
France 16-Sep 1
Portugal 17-Sep 12
Spain 29-Sep 1
Guatemala 30-Sep 19
Cuba 19-Oct 21
Chile 9-Nov 3
Ecuador 12-Nov 2
Galapagos 14-Nov 7
Ecuador 21-Nov 7
Peru 28-Nov 14
Bolivia 12-Dec 21
Chile 2-Jan 5
Argentina 7-Jan
Uruguay 27-Feb 10
Brazil 9-Mar 29
Chile 7-Apr 2
Detailed Europe itinerary:
Aug 1 – Athens, Greece
Aug 2-7 - Naxos, Greece
Aug 8,9,10 – Athens, Greece
Aug 11 – Madrid, Spain
Aug 12-24 – Morocco
Aug 25 – Algeciras, Spain
Aug 26,27 – Valencia, Spain
Aug 28,29,30 – Barcelona, Spain
Aug 31 – Perpignan, France
Sep 1,2 – Cognac, France
Sep 3,4 Paris, France
Sep 5 – Pierrelatte, France
Sep 6,7 – Cannes, France
Sep 8,9 – Venice, Italy (My birthday!)
Sep 10,11 – Montepulciano, Italy
Sep 12,13,14 – Rome, Italy
Sep 15 – Savona, Italy
Sep 16 – Lourdes, France
Sep 17 – Braganca, Portugal
Sep 18,19 – Porto, Portugal
Sep 20-24 – Rio Maior, Portugal (Andy's birthday!)
Sep 25 – Marvao, Portugal
Sep 26,27,28 – Lisbon, Portugal
Sep 30 – Madrid, Spain
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Angkor, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Wat can I say...ha ha...couldn't resist the bad pun!
We're now finishing our fourth and last day in Angkor, Siem Reap, where the most concentrated amount of wats (temples) in Cambodia are situated. This region boasts the famous Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom ('Big Capital') both of which are supremely iconic. If you don't know the names of the temples you will doubtlessly know the images, some from Discovery channel and others from the all time movie great 'the Jungle Book' and the not so all time movie great 'Tomb Raider' which were both largely shot in these two wats.
We bought a three day pass and tended towards 5-6 hours a day tiki touring around with our tuk tuk driver Samreth. It was an amazing experience and I implore anyone coming through South East Asia to get up here to see these amazing temples. The scale, detail, and unique beauty is staggering. Words can't describe, photos can try, but you really just need to experience it yourself.
Here are some shots from our first day of exploring.....
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=36353&l=ce157&id=694561720
We have two days after this of experiences and over 1000 photos, no joke. We need to get ruthless and cull some but they are all so fricken sweet!
Only halfway through our third day, this morning after a 4am wake up to see the sunrise over Angkor we had our first moment of the 'templed out syndrome' travellers talk about. It was also on our second to last of the eight wats we covered, so we did pretty well! Not hard though if you pace yourself in the heat as they are all so unique -you always see something new at each temple: roots pushing the rock apart; crooked smiles on the giant faces; a beautiful and still perfect Apsara (celestial nymph) image after over 800 years of weathering; an ancient Buddha prayed to by pr
obably tens maybe hundreds of thousands of people over its long life; evidence of the war, often in the form of destroyed Buddha statues or bullet holes in the walls; it goes on. All these surviving so many generations, when my grandfather, and his father, and his fathers father were born it was still ancient to their generation! Ridiculous.
Coming from such a young country, the age and mass of history in a place like this blows my mind.
I particularly loved the apsara images. I've loved the image of the apsara and what she embodies for a long time now so seeing the real images in their most ancient form was pretty cool ow. And leads me to my next point....I am considering my first tattoo. I would say I have decided but as I don't have it yet, and have to wait for the right conditions to get it done (i.e. Europe), and am quite flippant with tattoo ideas, I will call it considering. I was going to get it today but Andy advised the likelihood of infection in the terrain we've been covering is pretty high, and that it would be no fun pussing particularly in the place I am thinking about getting it done... haha....calm, down....the arch of my foot! So that's exciting. Mum....comments?
xx
We're now finishing our fourth and last day in Angkor, Siem Reap, where the most concentrated amount of wats (temples) in Cambodia are situated. This region boasts the famous Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom ('Big Capital') both of which are supremely iconic. If you don't know the names of the temples you will doubtlessly know the images, some from Discovery channel and others from the all time movie great 'the Jungle Book' and the not so all time movie great 'Tomb Raider' which were both largely shot in these two wats.
We bought a three day pass and tended towards 5-6 hours a day tiki touring around with our tuk tuk driver Samreth. It was an amazing experience and I implore anyone coming through South East Asia to get up here to see these amazing temples. The scale, detail, and unique beauty is staggering. Words can't describe, photos can try, but you really just need to experience it yourself.
Here are some shots from our first day of exploring.....
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=36353&l=ce157&id=694561720
We have two days after this of experiences and over 1000 photos, no joke. We need to get ruthless and cull some but they are all so fricken sweet!
Only halfway through our third day, this morning after a 4am wake up to see the sunrise over Angkor we had our first moment of the 'templed out syndrome' travellers talk about. It was also on our second to last of the eight wats we covered, so we did pretty well! Not hard though if you pace yourself in the heat as they are all so unique -you always see something new at each temple: roots pushing the rock apart; crooked smiles on the giant faces; a beautiful and still perfect Apsara (celestial nymph) image after over 800 years of weathering; an ancient Buddha prayed to by pr
obably tens maybe hundreds of thousands of people over its long life; evidence of the war, often in the form of destroyed Buddha statues or bullet holes in the walls; it goes on. All these surviving so many generations, when my grandfather, and his father, and his fathers father were born it was still ancient to their generation! Ridiculous.Coming from such a young country, the age and mass of history in a place like this blows my mind.
I particularly loved the apsara images. I've loved the image of the apsara and what she embodies for a long time now so seeing the real images in their most ancient form was pretty cool ow. And leads me to my next point....I am considering my first tattoo. I would say I have decided but as I don't have it yet, and have to wait for the right conditions to get it done (i.e. Europe), and am quite flippant with tattoo ideas, I will call it considering. I was going to get it today but Andy advised the likelihood of infection in the terrain we've been covering is pretty high, and that it would be no fun pussing particularly in the place I am thinking about getting it done... haha....calm, down....the arch of my foot! So that's exciting. Mum....comments?
xx
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
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Sihanoukville and Kep, Cambodia
We've officially passed our first month of travelling!
It's strange, feels like a lot longer as we've eased into the travelers lifestyle completely. I can't imagine how weathered I'll feel at the end of this... or maybe it'll be the opposite, revitalised and full of life ... a girl can only hope.
We just arrived back in Phnom Penh after a tiki tour to Cambodia's beach towns, Sihanoukville and Kep. Unfortunately the weather was crap so no real lazing on the beach time, but Andy and I did manage a swim/bodysurf in Sihanoukville, the waves were really strong for SE Asian standards. Everytime i resurfaced after a wave dunk i had to yank both sections of my bikini back into place! The waves would tear them out of position and pull me into the shallows to add insult to embarrasment.
Sihanoukville is a realtively new destination in Cambodia, founded in 1964 as Cambodia's main port. It's a whitish (off white, stucco) sand beach with cafe's galore and yes ... fire dancing to lure the tourists into the bars like moths to a flame. The experience I had was of a sleepy, poor (lots of begging kids selling trinkets) beach town with not much going on. I'm sure this is different for those that visit it in high season without the monsoon rain we were treated to.
After two nights we moved onto Kep, which was Cambodia's most popular beach town prior to the sixties, frequented by the rich French and Cambodian elite. We could see this from the magnificent stone villas sp
otted along the lush coastline, which were obliterated during the KR years. Now they're broken and weathered, many shot up with bullet holes, all grey water marked stone as the paint has peeled off - essentially in a state of complete disrepair.... and absolutely oozing character!
Locals have squatted in those that still are habitable and others that are not, were free for us to explore. We took bikes from our bugalows and went for a tour. The villa's are still full of splendor, with tiled floors and high ceilings, some as high as the sky as they've been blown out in the war, some without floors too so you can look straight up two stories or more. Geometric forms everywhere. We saw the old palace the king built before the KR, which now houses squatters who welcomed us to come in and have a look. They were all irrisistable to photograph, draped in vines and the scars of war. Luckily we were out of battery or I would have used our whole 8MB card on shots of them only!
Kep's also great for seafood...which Rach, Andy and I all love, so when we were out of exploring might we popped into a seaside cafe and had fresh crab and ginger squid. Honestly...the food here is so cheap and delicious. The downside is I did tempt fate on my last post boasting no tummy trouble yet and have now experienced my first tummy trauma. Its been two nights so far and seems to be letting up thanks to the drugs we stocked up on in NZ.
Hope you're all well and snuggling up infront of the fire/heater/ heat pump with your hot cuppas and think of me occasionally while I sweat and demand rooms with fans.
Angkor this weekend!! YAY
xxx
It's strange, feels like a lot longer as we've eased into the travelers lifestyle completely. I can't imagine how weathered I'll feel at the end of this... or maybe it'll be the opposite, revitalised and full of life ... a girl can only hope.
We just arrived back in Phnom Penh after a tiki tour to Cambodia's beach towns, Sihanoukville and Kep. Unfortunately the weather was crap so no real lazing on the beach time, but Andy and I did manage a swim/bodysurf in Sihanoukville, the waves were really strong for SE Asian standards. Everytime i resurfaced after a wave dunk i had to yank both sections of my bikini back into place! The waves would tear them out of position and pull me into the shallows to add insult to embarrasment.
Sihanoukville is a realtively new destination in Cambodia, founded in 1964 as Cambodia's main port. It's a whitish (off white, stucco) sand beach with cafe's galore and yes ... fire dancing to lure the tourists into the bars like moths to a flame. The experience I had was of a sleepy, poor (lots of begging kids selling trinkets) beach town with not much going on. I'm sure this is different for those that visit it in high season without the monsoon rain we were treated to.
After two nights we moved onto Kep, which was Cambodia's most popular beach town prior to the sixties, frequented by the rich French and Cambodian elite. We could see this from the magnificent stone villas sp
otted along the lush coastline, which were obliterated during the KR years. Now they're broken and weathered, many shot up with bullet holes, all grey water marked stone as the paint has peeled off - essentially in a state of complete disrepair.... and absolutely oozing character!Locals have squatted in those that still are habitable and others that are not, were free for us to explore. We took bikes from our bugalows and went for a tour. The villa's are still full of splendor, with tiled floors and high ceilings, some as high as the sky as they've been blown out in the war, some without floors too so you can look straight up two stories or more. Geometric forms everywhere. We saw the old palace the king built before the KR, which now houses squatters who welcomed us to come in and have a look. They were all irrisistable to photograph, draped in vines and the scars of war. Luckily we were out of battery or I would have used our whole 8MB card on shots of them only!
Kep's also great for seafood...which Rach, Andy and I all love, so when we were out of exploring might we popped into a seaside cafe and had fresh crab and ginger squid. Honestly...the food here is so cheap and delicious. The downside is I did tempt fate on my last post boasting no tummy trouble yet and have now experienced my first tummy trauma. Its been two nights so far and seems to be letting up thanks to the drugs we stocked up on in NZ.
Hope you're all well and snuggling up infront of the fire/heater/ heat pump with your hot cuppas and think of me occasionally while I sweat and demand rooms with fans.
Angkor this weekend!! YAY
xxx
Friday, May 9, 2008
Svay Rieng - another side to Cambodia
Jum-reap suor ya'll
I'm still loving it here and have seen so much more of it now.
The variety is thanks to Rach, Andy's sister. She's been an excellent guide around Phnom Penh city, showing us loads of local bars where we've subsisted on their generous 2-3 hour happy hours, taken us to some fine and reasonably priced restaurants, negotiated some great tuk tuk & moto rides, introduced us to heaps of locals and expats, and as you can imagine provided a plethora of advice in general. However, definitely my biggest thanks to Rach is for taking us to her home 2.5 hours outside of Phnom Penh in rural Svey Rieng. There we saw another side of Cambodia, a side that most tourist do not see.
What an experience, to see first hand rural life in Cambodia, smell the smells, see and occasionally meet to the people, and see how they live.
It's very rare for westeners to visit so they were equally interested in us. We had lots of random calls of 'hello!' from kids and adults alike as we wandered around, and of course the constant watchful eye. I've found the most translatable thing is a smile, so I beam and wave at most of them, most of which reciprocate with a big grin orspurt of an english saying they've learnt. Its a fantastic feeling just communicating.
She's has been working Svay Rieng for over a year now for the Rural Economic Development Association (REDA) via VSA, on a project with the goal of providing care for children orphaned by AIDS. There are approximately fifteen kids under their care between the ages 3 and 18 .
We visited the orphanage yesterday and got a feel for it. The kids live in very basic huts made from local materials and subsist on food from their own gardens and small fish from the ponds spotted around the village. Its a small place, with loads of chickens and dogs and small community labour tasks going on.
We shouted ingredients for a lunch for the kids as a little hello and thanks for having us. It was amazing what the cook could do with the basic veges we bought. A delicious eggplant stew, a mixture of pumpkin and garlic and chilli, a sort of fish curry, some salad, all with a very delicious lime and cracked pepper sauce, very common in Cambodia and of course all on rice.
We originally had our seats set up at the head of the table facing the kids, very formal 'fa fa' but Rach insisted that we sit with the kids, so we forced some room and settled in with them instead. It was a quiet affair, the kids were hushed by our strange presence but as lunch went on, we chatted and they eased up and responded to some of the silly faces I pulled at them and Rachs questions to them in khmer. They loved the fish curry, consisting of the sprats i saw them hammering to death earlier that day.
It was really cool just hanging out with them, grinning away at each other. We took loads of photos, and as soon as i showed them I was taking photos they started manically pulling the peace sign at the camera - haha. There was one little bald guy who quickly got over eating and went and stood next to Andy, just staring at him, fascinated by the hairy portugese beast in front of him. Ww've got a great film of this. Will try to get it on youtube.
It was serious stuff seeing these kids - They have such a lonely, hard reality being orphans of such a manner in a karma based society, - some believe their situaion is due to bad deeds of a former life - but not all of course. And on top of this they have already been through so much, loosing their parents and being alone. They aim to teach them so they can survive after the orphanage but it plagues Rach how they will really survive without this support.
Onto the nice side though... I'm so glad they have this project to keep them off the streets. Sure, it's not all roses, and there is room for a lot of improvement, and that is another thing that frustrates Rach as progess is slow and hard fought for here. But it comes down to - how much is enough? And in this case a little is a lot, what they're receiving warms me when i think of what situation they could be in.
On our way back to Phnom Penh we got a view of this potential reality on the streets. Our car was stopped waiting for the river ferry and along with the market people with baskets on their heads of their wares, and little girls and boys (along with the standard older disfigured beggars) were tapping on the window begging for money. We've had beggars this whole trip but seeing these kids was really sad. Some of the girls were carrying very little babies, the girls were under 10, and the babies under 2, so they must be their siblings. It's likely they were carrying them for the extra sympathy to tug on our heartstrings which ofcourse it did. But isn't that fair enough? It's a true reality.
It's a hard decision. It's likely their parents are putting them out to beg, which is a practice I don't want to support. I'd prefer it if they had some goods to sell, so they're earning their money by learning how to earn it. But with the poverty here, the lack of education and farming experience of many and simply no land or home to produce anything from what choice do they have? They cant produce so all they have is to beg.
As the tourist it's a really tough call to decide when is enough. If we gave $1USD to each beggar we've seen so far, our entire budget would be gone. This situation of begging and street life is very sad, and this is where the kids we meet would end up without REDA and people like Rach doing what she does. So three cheers to Rach!
I'm still loving it here and have seen so much more of it now.
The variety is thanks to Rach, Andy's sister. She's been an excellent guide around Phnom Penh city, showing us loads of local bars where we've subsisted on their generous 2-3 hour happy hours, taken us to some fine and reasonably priced restaurants, negotiated some great tuk tuk & moto rides, introduced us to heaps of locals and expats, and as you can imagine provided a plethora of advice in general. However, definitely my biggest thanks to Rach is for taking us to her home 2.5 hours outside of Phnom Penh in rural Svey Rieng. There we saw another side of Cambodia, a side that most tourist do not see.
What an experience, to see first hand rural life in Cambodia, smell the smells, see and occasionally meet to the people, and see how they live.
It's very rare for westeners to visit so they were equally interested in us. We had lots of random calls of 'hello!' from kids and adults alike as we wandered around, and of course the constant watchful eye. I've found the most translatable thing is a smile, so I beam and wave at most of them, most of which reciprocate with a big grin orspurt of an english saying they've learnt. Its a fantastic feeling just communicating.
She's has been working Svay Rieng for over a year now for the Rural Economic Development Association (REDA) via VSA, on a project with the goal of providing care for children orphaned by AIDS. There are approximately fifteen kids under their care between the ages 3 and 18 .
We visited the orphanage yesterday and got a feel for it. The kids live in very basic huts made from local materials and subsist on food from their own gardens and small fish from the ponds spotted around the village. Its a small place, with loads of chickens and dogs and small community labour tasks going on.
We shouted ingredients for a lunch for the kids as a little hello and thanks for having us. It was amazing what the cook could do with the basic veges we bought. A delicious eggplant stew, a mixture of pumpkin and garlic and chilli, a sort of fish curry, some salad, all with a very delicious lime and cracked pepper sauce, very common in Cambodia and of course all on rice.
We originally had our seats set up at the head of the table facing the kids, very formal 'fa fa' but Rach insisted that we sit with the kids, so we forced some room and settled in with them instead. It was a quiet affair, the kids were hushed by our strange presence but as lunch went on, we chatted and they eased up and responded to some of the silly faces I pulled at them and Rachs questions to them in khmer. They loved the fish curry, consisting of the sprats i saw them hammering to death earlier that day.
It was really cool just hanging out with them, grinning away at each other. We took loads of photos, and as soon as i showed them I was taking photos they started manically pulling the peace sign at the camera - haha. There was one little bald guy who quickly got over eating and went and stood next to Andy, just staring at him, fascinated by the hairy portugese beast in front of him. Ww've got a great film of this. Will try to get it on youtube.
It was serious stuff seeing these kids - They have such a lonely, hard reality being orphans of such a manner in a karma based society, - some believe their situaion is due to bad deeds of a former life - but not all of course. And on top of this they have already been through so much, loosing their parents and being alone. They aim to teach them so they can survive after the orphanage but it plagues Rach how they will really survive without this support.
Onto the nice side though... I'm so glad they have this project to keep them off the streets. Sure, it's not all roses, and there is room for a lot of improvement, and that is another thing that frustrates Rach as progess is slow and hard fought for here. But it comes down to - how much is enough? And in this case a little is a lot, what they're receiving warms me when i think of what situation they could be in.
On our way back to Phnom Penh we got a view of this potential reality on the streets. Our car was stopped waiting for the river ferry and along with the market people with baskets on their heads of their wares, and little girls and boys (along with the standard older disfigured beggars) were tapping on the window begging for money. We've had beggars this whole trip but seeing these kids was really sad. Some of the girls were carrying very little babies, the girls were under 10, and the babies under 2, so they must be their siblings. It's likely they were carrying them for the extra sympathy to tug on our heartstrings which ofcourse it did. But isn't that fair enough? It's a true reality.
It's a hard decision. It's likely their parents are putting them out to beg, which is a practice I don't want to support. I'd prefer it if they had some goods to sell, so they're earning their money by learning how to earn it. But with the poverty here, the lack of education and farming experience of many and simply no land or home to produce anything from what choice do they have? They cant produce so all they have is to beg.
As the tourist it's a really tough call to decide when is enough. If we gave $1USD to each beggar we've seen so far, our entire budget would be gone. This situation of begging and street life is very sad, and this is where the kids we meet would end up without REDA and people like Rach doing what she does. So three cheers to Rach!
On other aspects of our trip to Svay Rieng, I expereinced my favourite Cambodian meal so far is the Cambodian pancake, ban chao, which is something I had had before in NZ thanks for Vina, Vibol's mama's great cooking. Essentially it's a pancake which is stuffed with veges and meat and comes with a plate of flavousome greens and delicious peanut sauce. mmm! We had it at a local place near Rach's which had little outdoor shacks for eating in. During our meal we had many dogs, geckos and a few toads join us. haha. Gotta love the rural life. That night I had terrible tummy cramps... another factor of a city girls tummy in a rural setting. Touch wood though, thats the worst I've had yet. No real food poisoning as predicted yet. I am nervous now...argh...tempting fate.
We also visited the local market , cracked muddy roads with bikes and cows everwhere. Everything is in sections, food, clothes, and believe it or not electronics, all displayed in stalls.
The meat is displayed on outdoor tables, flys and all -my tummy could never cope with that sort of thing, (as with my pancake experience) but the hardened local tummies must be fine with it... The veges are great though, cheap and fresh, most just look a little different so you've got to be daring...like the passionfuit with a pink exterior.
photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35512&l=b78a4&id=694561720
AND NOW ADDED....Shots of REDA
There are way more fantastic ones but this connection sucks so we'll have to wait!
Anyway - I better stop. This is ridiculously long and I congratulate you if you made it to the end of this rambling post. Funny enough...I HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO SAY! I'll save it. Love to all and keep those updates comming. I love hearing from you. xx
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Finally we are here.
I've wanted to visit this country for almost ten years and here I am!Dramatically mind you, we flew in through a forked lightening storm where our plane was forced to circle for a good half hour. Pretty scary being trapped in a tin can in an electrical storm. The landing was the icing on the cake, for reasons unknown the pilot doubled our speed to land then slammed us down - BANG - on the runway leaving me blinking my eyeballs back into their sockets. Definatley my scariest landing yet!
It was and is so great to see Rach - easy to spot her smiling face and blonde curls amongst the Cambodian crowd.
Phnom Penh is different to what I had expected. I imagined something similar to Bangkok, with busy, crowded, crazy streets, instead PP has wide empty streets for the most part with lush palms and vines dripping from beautiful french/Indochine architecture. Don't get me wrong the traffic is crazy but not like other cities. there are no traffic lights, you just beep and slow down when you come to a intersection, oh and its right side drive so crossing the street can be a tad confusing.
We're staying in 'NGO Land', the part of the city that houses most of the NGO's, and the UN. Its a relief not to be in the main tourist part of the city, and from the little i have seen is a very beautiful part - with boganvillia everywhere. BTW - boganvillia's nothing to do with 'bogans' despite the excellent name - it's the vine with the pretty pink leaf like flowers.)
We ate some bugs the other night, cicada,s crickets, grasshoppers and grubs. The staff at a bar we were drinking at had two bags full of various fried creepy crawlies and were munching away and offered us some. It surprised me as i had always thought it was just a trick pulled on westerners as something really crazy to do like 'woah man - i ate spiders in Cambodia!' but as they were chowing down on them and were seriously offering them we gave it a shot. They were surprisingly yum, very oily and sauteed in soy or something like and yes its true, they taste rather nutty. I had three in all and most preferred the grubs, less crunch.
We visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum today which was hard going. The site was a high school which was used as the Prison by the Khmer Rouge during the civil war. As you know this is where horrific torture was carried out and blood still stains the floor and the air. I still feel pretty ill thinking of it but it was a side that I wanted to see. There's a lot of information, and photos and artifacts (including skulls) from what went on in display to give you a very clear idea of what went on.
Typically my worst thought is usually right. For example, the exterior walkway of the top floor of one of the buildings was fenced in with barbed wire...my first thought, to stop people jumping off- later this was confirmed. argh.
It was a reminder of the scale and how horrific and recent it happened. There is not a Cambodian living today that wasn't effected.
x
I've wanted to visit this country for almost ten years and here I am!Dramatically mind you, we flew in through a forked lightening storm where our plane was forced to circle for a good half hour. Pretty scary being trapped in a tin can in an electrical storm. The landing was the icing on the cake, for reasons unknown the pilot doubled our speed to land then slammed us down - BANG - on the runway leaving me blinking my eyeballs back into their sockets. Definatley my scariest landing yet!
It was and is so great to see Rach - easy to spot her smiling face and blonde curls amongst the Cambodian crowd.
Phnom Penh is different to what I had expected. I imagined something similar to Bangkok, with busy, crowded, crazy streets, instead PP has wide empty streets for the most part with lush palms and vines dripping from beautiful french/Indochine architecture. Don't get me wrong the traffic is crazy but not like other cities. there are no traffic lights, you just beep and slow down when you come to a intersection, oh and its right side drive so crossing the street can be a tad confusing.
We're staying in 'NGO Land', the part of the city that houses most of the NGO's, and the UN. Its a relief not to be in the main tourist part of the city, and from the little i have seen is a very beautiful part - with boganvillia everywhere. BTW - boganvillia's nothing to do with 'bogans' despite the excellent name - it's the vine with the pretty pink leaf like flowers.)
We ate some bugs the other night, cicada,s crickets, grasshoppers and grubs. The staff at a bar we were drinking at had two bags full of various fried creepy crawlies and were munching away and offered us some. It surprised me as i had always thought it was just a trick pulled on westerners as something really crazy to do like 'woah man - i ate spiders in Cambodia!' but as they were chowing down on them and were seriously offering them we gave it a shot. They were surprisingly yum, very oily and sauteed in soy or something like and yes its true, they taste rather nutty. I had three in all and most preferred the grubs, less crunch.
We visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum today which was hard going. The site was a high school which was used as the Prison by the Khmer Rouge during the civil war. As you know this is where horrific torture was carried out and blood still stains the floor and the air. I still feel pretty ill thinking of it but it was a side that I wanted to see. There's a lot of information, and photos and artifacts (including skulls) from what went on in display to give you a very clear idea of what went on.
Typically my worst thought is usually right. For example, the exterior walkway of the top floor of one of the buildings was fenced in with barbed wire...my first thought, to stop people jumping off- later this was confirmed. argh.
It was a reminder of the scale and how horrific and recent it happened. There is not a Cambodian living today that wasn't effected.
x
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