We are loving the coffee here. The way it's done is it comes in a small cup and the bottom layer is sweet condensed milk. On top of that sits a rather strong espresso layer. The idea is you decide how much of the sticky milk you want and mix accordingly. A brief stir for a hint of dairy sweetness and a vigorous churn for an extremely sugar, milky treat (feat. strong coffee) which in the case of this morning's concoction ended in a sugar induced head-rush then later brief crash, reminiscent of the vanilla hot-chocolate I had at Max Brenners in Melbourne. Pictured here is the iced-coffee version which McGee has really gotten into when the afternoon sun is at its least forgiving.
Thursday, 26 March 2009
Have you heard about this coffee?
We are loving the coffee here. The way it's done is it comes in a small cup and the bottom layer is sweet condensed milk. On top of that sits a rather strong espresso layer. The idea is you decide how much of the sticky milk you want and mix accordingly. A brief stir for a hint of dairy sweetness and a vigorous churn for an extremely sugar, milky treat (feat. strong coffee) which in the case of this morning's concoction ended in a sugar induced head-rush then later brief crash, reminiscent of the vanilla hot-chocolate I had at Max Brenners in Melbourne. Pictured here is the iced-coffee version which McGee has really gotten into when the afternoon sun is at its least forgiving.
I'm on a boat
I caught a fish! The three of us start the day by heading out into the river on a canoe. It has water in it with live prawns (our bait) jumping at our asses the whole time. Rowing around reminds us of apocalypse now. It's awesome and the river is really quiet and peaceful. I'm pretty happy with myself having caught the only fish for the day using a mineral water bottle, a sinker and a hook as a rod. We gave the fish to the canoe hire lady who was really nice even though we couldn't communicate verbally. Sarrat says she'll cook it for dinner.
A lot of the people here fish and farm to feed themselves and trade. We went to Sarrat's house and met his mum and dad. They have a rice field and lots of chickens. Also his girlfriend was there looking for him but Sarrat's mum doesn't want him hanging around with her. She's not so fond of her as it turns out.
Sarrat plays an old guitar that he hasn't been able to use as he doesn't know how to tune one. The machine heads are so rusty and the body is battered, the strings more rust than steel but I managed to do it and we took it to this hammock cafe on stilts to play while we had our Cambodian coffees.
We finally had Lok Lak for lunch, a Khmer favourite. Really good. A Chinese company purchased this part of the river to build a dam. We went up as far as we could to a security booth where the police guys there told us that foreigners are not allowed. No pictures either. Also there were a couple of machines guns on the wall, mounted. Don't see that everyday. So the three of us got back on Sarrat's motorcycle and headed to another 'bar' on stilts. That was amazing too. Now we're at the guesthouse contemplating dinner and cocktails of some variety.
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
McGee Blog - Kampot
We are in Kampot now, a little village in the South of Cambodia that sits on bay that comes from the ocean.The guest house is on stilts over the river and we have been lazing around in hammocks on the balcony watching all the fishing boats head out to the sea for the morning fishing. The river also totally pongs but we have been smoking cigarettes to fend off the pong.
The view from here is totally stunning. Across the river are layers of hills, indistinct with a low mist. Palms line the banks, interspersed with tall, boxy houses on stilts.
Both Josh and I were really affected by our last few days in Phnom Penh. We took a bus from Seam Reap which as Josh explained is kind of torturous, not because of the roads or the bus but because of the relentless presence of asian Karoake in all its synth glory.
At one point we got off at a little market town for a rest stop and Josh and I were totally unprepared for it as we got off. We were hit by a throng of people selling, begging, tugging at our clothes. We stepped into the shade of the bus for a cigarette but instantly several kids surrounded us demanding " you buy mango! you buy pineapple! Only 2 dolla!"
There were a lot of beggars, many with no legs or no arms. We felt stifled and anxious by it all and tried to ignore everyone and just smoke but it soon became overwhelming- the heat, the dust, the people.
Trying to get back on the bus we had to fight of the sellers. Out of the corner of my eye i ssw this little boy, maybe 5 or 6. He was scrawny and his hair and clothes were filled with dust. He put his hand out for some money and i shook my head. Then i realised that he was leading man, his father or his grandfather mybe, and the man had no eyes. I don't mean he was just blind, I mean he had no eyes. Just these rough hewn mass of scars where his eyes should have been. Shocked i shook my head again and got on the bus.
As we drove on to Pnomh Penh I just watched the countryside pass by. I felt guilty and wilfully ignorant for not giving that kid something. Like my fear had just propelled me onto the bus before my humanity could jump in with some compassion. I thought about this man with no eyes a lot. How had he lost them? It had to have been an act of violence of some sort. Was it torture under the Khmer Rouge? Was it a mine? I just thought tht t some point in his life he could see and then he must have endured some terrible violence- deliberate or accidental. And now this is how he makes his way- this tiny kid and him begging money off rich tourists passing momentarily through their lives.
It's the same with so many people we meet here. The violence and trauma is everywhere. Beggars with no limbs, a woman in the market selling postcards with scars that have melted her face, shoulder and arms.You would think then tht the people here would be suspicious and fearful and yet culturally everyone here is so open. As Josh said to me one night, as soon as you get talking to the kids they are just like every other kid. They want to be entertained, their attention moves from one thing to another and they are delighted by new things.
Phnom Penh was this dirty, colonial glory of a city faded by war and dust. Its probably the most dangerous city we have been to and you felt that walking through the streets. It gave us a chance to learn more about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. The crazy thing is tht he was only in power for a few years but the damage he did in that time was beyond comprehension. 2 million died, either killled or by starvation. He evacuated all the cities, including Phnom Penh and moved everyone into co-operatives in teh countrywhere they were to farm rice that was exported to China even as half the country starved to death.
Pol Pot was, basically, a genocidal nutcase with a dream for communist Utopia. He believed that the taint of the old world had to be completely eradicted and so he killed everyone who was educated, who lived in cities with professional jobs, who spoke more thn one language. Even wearing glasses could have you killed.He also believed that you had to destroy the rotten tree you had to kill the roots, so he also killed everyone in the family, babies, kids and grandparents.
The Toul Sleng museum that Josh wrote about is the most brutal of the 'security centres' that these people were sent. Called 'S-21'20,000 people passed through and only 7 survived. Here they were tortured with calculated,efficient brutality. They were numbered and photographed and their confessions recorded for posterity. Now, the main building is an eerily peaceful museum that still feels like the school it once was. Some of the rooms have been left as they were. Stark and disturbing they contain bedframes, shackles and shell casing. On the wall of each cell is a huge photograph, maybe a metre and a half square, of someone who was tortured and died in the room. They are bleached with age, the dark spots of the starved, brutalised bodies look like bloodstains on overexposed film.
One floor of one building is simply rows and rows of stands set up lengthways down the halls. On each one are hundreds of small photos in black and white. These are the photos they took of each person to come through. Each is a different face, some are old, many are children. Some of their eyes are wide wtih fear, but surprisingly few. Most are just blank, or haunted or numb, depending on how you interpret. Walking through these long corridors of faces, the simple horror of it is overwhelming. Sometimes you stop, pick a face and just stare. Trying to see past the picture and into the life of this person, into their death.
After Toul Sleng they were taken to the Killing Fields. This dusty parcel of land is so banal. Just dust and trees and the huge indentations of dirt that mark the place where thousands of bodies were dumped. I was a bit of a mess within a few minutes of being there, just looking at the piles of skulls in the stupa. So matter of factly organised into 'female- 0-20 years, female 0-30 years' and so on until at the top level are the oldest. Walking around we scuff over human teeth jutting out of the ground and thousands of bone fragments that have been pressed into the hard dirt. I think its maybe the worst thing i've ever seen in my life.
We have definitely fallen in love with this country, and its tragedy just makes what it is today even more contradictory. It's by no means a happy country, the corruption is immense and the poverty is everywhere. There's also a strange disconnection to its history. Kids aren't even taught about the Khmer Rouge in school- maybe because some of them are still, i do not lie, high in the government. Still, moving on from here is going to be a relief though i will never forget that stupa with its skulls or those thousands of faces at Toul Sleng.
The view from here is totally stunning. Across the river are layers of hills, indistinct with a low mist. Palms line the banks, interspersed with tall, boxy houses on stilts.
Both Josh and I were really affected by our last few days in Phnom Penh. We took a bus from Seam Reap which as Josh explained is kind of torturous, not because of the roads or the bus but because of the relentless presence of asian Karoake in all its synth glory.
At one point we got off at a little market town for a rest stop and Josh and I were totally unprepared for it as we got off. We were hit by a throng of people selling, begging, tugging at our clothes. We stepped into the shade of the bus for a cigarette but instantly several kids surrounded us demanding " you buy mango! you buy pineapple! Only 2 dolla!"
There were a lot of beggars, many with no legs or no arms. We felt stifled and anxious by it all and tried to ignore everyone and just smoke but it soon became overwhelming- the heat, the dust, the people.
Trying to get back on the bus we had to fight of the sellers. Out of the corner of my eye i ssw this little boy, maybe 5 or 6. He was scrawny and his hair and clothes were filled with dust. He put his hand out for some money and i shook my head. Then i realised that he was leading man, his father or his grandfather mybe, and the man had no eyes. I don't mean he was just blind, I mean he had no eyes. Just these rough hewn mass of scars where his eyes should have been. Shocked i shook my head again and got on the bus.
As we drove on to Pnomh Penh I just watched the countryside pass by. I felt guilty and wilfully ignorant for not giving that kid something. Like my fear had just propelled me onto the bus before my humanity could jump in with some compassion. I thought about this man with no eyes a lot. How had he lost them? It had to have been an act of violence of some sort. Was it torture under the Khmer Rouge? Was it a mine? I just thought tht t some point in his life he could see and then he must have endured some terrible violence- deliberate or accidental. And now this is how he makes his way- this tiny kid and him begging money off rich tourists passing momentarily through their lives.
It's the same with so many people we meet here. The violence and trauma is everywhere. Beggars with no limbs, a woman in the market selling postcards with scars that have melted her face, shoulder and arms.You would think then tht the people here would be suspicious and fearful and yet culturally everyone here is so open. As Josh said to me one night, as soon as you get talking to the kids they are just like every other kid. They want to be entertained, their attention moves from one thing to another and they are delighted by new things.
Phnom Penh was this dirty, colonial glory of a city faded by war and dust. Its probably the most dangerous city we have been to and you felt that walking through the streets. It gave us a chance to learn more about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. The crazy thing is tht he was only in power for a few years but the damage he did in that time was beyond comprehension. 2 million died, either killled or by starvation. He evacuated all the cities, including Phnom Penh and moved everyone into co-operatives in teh countrywhere they were to farm rice that was exported to China even as half the country starved to death.
Pol Pot was, basically, a genocidal nutcase with a dream for communist Utopia. He believed that the taint of the old world had to be completely eradicted and so he killed everyone who was educated, who lived in cities with professional jobs, who spoke more thn one language. Even wearing glasses could have you killed.He also believed that you had to destroy the rotten tree you had to kill the roots, so he also killed everyone in the family, babies, kids and grandparents.
The Toul Sleng museum that Josh wrote about is the most brutal of the 'security centres' that these people were sent. Called 'S-21'20,000 people passed through and only 7 survived. Here they were tortured with calculated,efficient brutality. They were numbered and photographed and their confessions recorded for posterity. Now, the main building is an eerily peaceful museum that still feels like the school it once was. Some of the rooms have been left as they were. Stark and disturbing they contain bedframes, shackles and shell casing. On the wall of each cell is a huge photograph, maybe a metre and a half square, of someone who was tortured and died in the room. They are bleached with age, the dark spots of the starved, brutalised bodies look like bloodstains on overexposed film.
One floor of one building is simply rows and rows of stands set up lengthways down the halls. On each one are hundreds of small photos in black and white. These are the photos they took of each person to come through. Each is a different face, some are old, many are children. Some of their eyes are wide wtih fear, but surprisingly few. Most are just blank, or haunted or numb, depending on how you interpret. Walking through these long corridors of faces, the simple horror of it is overwhelming. Sometimes you stop, pick a face and just stare. Trying to see past the picture and into the life of this person, into their death.
After Toul Sleng they were taken to the Killing Fields. This dusty parcel of land is so banal. Just dust and trees and the huge indentations of dirt that mark the place where thousands of bodies were dumped. I was a bit of a mess within a few minutes of being there, just looking at the piles of skulls in the stupa. So matter of factly organised into 'female- 0-20 years, female 0-30 years' and so on until at the top level are the oldest. Walking around we scuff over human teeth jutting out of the ground and thousands of bone fragments that have been pressed into the hard dirt. I think its maybe the worst thing i've ever seen in my life.
We have definitely fallen in love with this country, and its tragedy just makes what it is today even more contradictory. It's by no means a happy country, the corruption is immense and the poverty is everywhere. There's also a strange disconnection to its history. Kids aren't even taught about the Khmer Rouge in school- maybe because some of them are still, i do not lie, high in the government. Still, moving on from here is going to be a relief though i will never forget that stupa with its skulls or those thousands of faces at Toul Sleng.
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Kampot
Kampot province is pretty much hammock town. Everyone is lazing around in hammocks. Shopkeepers, kids, fishermen, they are laying low and easy in the shade. Our guesthouse is on the river, on stilts. I'm drinking Angkor, the local brew. Dry, easy-drinking and tasty.
We met a local guy named Sarrat who is really cool. He took us to a local 'bar' where they make and serve the 'palm wine' that I've heard so much about. This place is a shanty by a water hole with mats rolled out in the spots of shade. He translates the chirpy old lady who runs the place, turns out we're the first foreigners to grace this fine establishment. He does the ordering and we get some chili pork and also some chili duck. Delicious.
The palm wine is like a spirit, it tastes fine and sweet by god damn it gets you drunk. Fast. The three of us shared a small water bottle and get ultra-tipsy while this old guy orders a bottle for himself. We pay next to nothing for this meal because Sarrat does the ordering. There is a foreigner tax for EVERYTHING here. If you don't speak the language people try to get you to pay a good 90% more. We're fortunate that Sarrat agrees to be our guide for the next day.
Monday, 23 March 2009
Ain't no party like a Cambodian bus par-tay-ho-hey
Cambodian local buses. Allritey, here's how it rolls. Two words: Cambodian Karaoke. There's a TV there in the front, there's speakers above your head (mine is the only one working for this particular journey, typical) and yeah. It goes nuts really. The whole 6-hour trip. Hit after hit. Off key, bad takes, HORRIBLE SYNTH TRUMPET they just love it. McGee half-jokes that we should get off at an earlier town to escape the wailing. I half-agree, we're trying to sleep but the volume fluctuates randomly. At one point it sounds like a kettle slowly comes to boil in the background and I wonder if this effect is intended by the artists, or if I've overlooked kitchen appliances in my own music production. One song ends, there's three seconds of silence tops before a synth drum fill introduces the next symphony of horrible noises and I nearly wet myself laughing every time because it's as grating on the senses as it is hysterical. Ah the public bus. Looking forward to the next one.
Sunday, 22 March 2009
Phnom Pehn
Phnom Penh is unlike any other place we've seen in southeast Asia thus far. It's dirty, and everybody wants your money. I don't feel safe here at all. This kid selling us books is telling us how often the kids will try and see if you have a lot of cash on you and then phone an older brother or someone who will then follow you around for a while and find the appropriate time to rob you. He says he saw this happen a month ago, this guy slashes a tourist's money pouch with a knife cutting her arm in the process. He reports it to the police and runs away, because corruption is big here and this mugger is probably going to beat the crap out of the kid. Luckily the mugger is in jail for 15 years. The kid says he's confident that he'll be big and strong enough to defend himself from a middle-aged man when the sentence is up. I'll be he's right.For McGee's birthday we went to a highly regarded and recommended Italian restaurant run by a real live Italian gentleman. We're both craving not-rice at this point and I order a carbonara. You can't go wrong with carbonara. Pasta, egg, bacon, cheese oh how I've missed you all my friends. Instead of a regular birthday cake we had banana pancakes in our room which was pretty neat. I had burgers for the following two nights here then it was off to Kampot on the first local bus in the morning.
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Tuol Sleng (S21), Phnom Penh
Again, this isn't a very pleasant read to skip it if you like.
Horrible pictures alert
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
The Killing Fields (Phnom Penh)
The Killing Fields is something you really have to witness for yourself in order to begin the struggle to make sense of the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime, which began in 1975 and only ended very recently. The high-up members are still till this day awaiting trial.
It's a mass grave site. It is a horrific place. It stepped on numerous skull fragments, collar bones, all just barely covered by the dust. Victims were tortured here by the most barbaric methods I've ever heard of (using banana tree branches like a saw to decapitate because it saves on bullets) and often dug their own graves before they could lie in it. Almost a quarter of the Cambodian people were killed during the regime. This and Tuol Sleng (S21) are the most horrifying and difficult places I have ever experienced being in. Stop reading now if you're squeamish or don't feel like a depressing blog entry.
There was a mass grave for infants next to a big tree that they were hit against to crack their skulls before being ditched in. There are infant bones around here. I cannot stress this enough, there are human bones everywhere. Under my shoes, a leg by a tree, a rib by some bushes, everywhere. Our guide fled Phnom Penh when the Khmer Rouge took over, but his parents and sister were killed here.
There is a pagoda here filled with the skulls that were found in the graves. Underneath the shelves is a heap of the clothes they wore when they were killed. This happened less than 30 years ago, it's difficult to interact with it at times. People who worked for the Khmer Rouge have now returned to villages to live amongst the people who suffered under the regime. They're in their 50s now. I find that hard to understand, how the people of this nation are just concerned with moving forward, within the same generation. I don't see forgiveness like that anywhere else in the world. It's a complicated time here in Cambodia.
Don't look at these photos if you think you'll be disturbed.
Friday, 13 March 2009
Leaving Siem Reap
'Siam Reap is such a nice place. The people are so very friendly and interested in travellers. Everybody wants to have a chat with you and they're inquisitive about where you're from and what your life is like. We could have easily stayed for longer, exploring more of this village which has the main draw for tourists of Angkor Wat and the many other temples in the region. It has a really easy-going vibe and despite being home to a range of restaurants and the famous 'Pub Street' you could totally have a very relaxing couple of weeks in Siam Reap. We decided to head to the nation's capital after our 4 day stay here.
Fortunately we were able to have a big night out on Pub Street at a nice little bar with comfy chairs and cheap 2-for-1 cocktails. We met a Swedish guy and an Irish girl who had recently met and teamed up for cheaper travel adventures. It was refreshing to sit around and crack jokes, not so common as far as other travellers we've met thus far goes. They were really funny and we got hammered till early in the morning before we managed to stumble successfully back to our guesthouse.
I'm learning that in Cambodia you really shouldn't mention the Khmer Rouge to the locals. It's understandably a difficult thing to discuss, the tragedies are so recent (and ongoing, this trial is just not happening). Pol Pot died in jail a few years back while awaiting trial and the locals refused to believe this until they saw pictures on the news. He didn't even get the chance to be convicted and sentenced for crimes of genocide. Seriously though this guy is up there with Hitler, he takes a substantial slice of the genocide-leading asshole pie.
Fortunately we were able to have a big night out on Pub Street at a nice little bar with comfy chairs and cheap 2-for-1 cocktails. We met a Swedish guy and an Irish girl who had recently met and teamed up for cheaper travel adventures. It was refreshing to sit around and crack jokes, not so common as far as other travellers we've met thus far goes. They were really funny and we got hammered till early in the morning before we managed to stumble successfully back to our guesthouse.
I'm learning that in Cambodia you really shouldn't mention the Khmer Rouge to the locals. It's understandably a difficult thing to discuss, the tragedies are so recent (and ongoing, this trial is just not happening). Pol Pot died in jail a few years back while awaiting trial and the locals refused to believe this until they saw pictures on the news. He didn't even get the chance to be convicted and sentenced for crimes of genocide. Seriously though this guy is up there with Hitler, he takes a substantial slice of the genocide-leading asshole pie.
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Photos
Finally found a net cafe here in Siem Reap with a connection that doesn't crawl, so here's some photos -
[ Ko Samet & Bangkok, Thailand ]
[ Siem Reap, Cambodia ]
[ Siem Reap, Cambodia ]
McGee's guest blog
Lots of people had said that the kids in Cambodia are pretty intense. Every where you go you are accosted by like 20 of them trying to sell postcards or water or whatever. So we were bracing ourselves at the temples for the trauma of poverty stricken children begging for money. The thing is, it is overwhelming but actually these kids are kind of amazing. Even as they are saying ''i'm poor, please give me money... i need to go to school' (which of course is true), they are grinning and running off, totally aware of how they are manipulating the tourists. Á common one is ''when you come back you buy my postcards okay, you promise' then when you get back they accost you saying ýou promise you buy my postcards!'. One kid even swore at Josh (the f word no less!) for not buying her water. Then she ran off kakking herself laughing. So yeah its true, they are poor but they are also smart and funny and sharp as anything. We saw one little boy, only maybe 7, practicing his 'sad' face for begging in front of his friends and then them all laughing when he did it well. I can see how some people get fed up of it but really, how switched on these guys must be to know how to do this! Like i said, really really cool kids.
We decided to stay an extra day in Siem Reap today because we are totally knackered from our epic tour of the temples yesterday. We downgraded rooms from a $13 one to a mere $4- so bloody cheap. There's no windows in the room but there's a toilet so we are happy.
Tomorrow we are moving onto Phnom Penh at 6:30 am. More adventures to be had soon- yay!
Lots of people had said that the kids in Cambodia are pretty intense. Every where you go you are accosted by like 20 of them trying to sell postcards or water or whatever. So we were bracing ourselves at the temples for the trauma of poverty stricken children begging for money. The thing is, it is overwhelming but actually these kids are kind of amazing. Even as they are saying ''i'm poor, please give me money... i need to go to school' (which of course is true), they are grinning and running off, totally aware of how they are manipulating the tourists. Á common one is ''when you come back you buy my postcards okay, you promise' then when you get back they accost you saying ýou promise you buy my postcards!'. One kid even swore at Josh (the f word no less!) for not buying her water. Then she ran off kakking herself laughing. So yeah its true, they are poor but they are also smart and funny and sharp as anything. We saw one little boy, only maybe 7, practicing his 'sad' face for begging in front of his friends and then them all laughing when he did it well. I can see how some people get fed up of it but really, how switched on these guys must be to know how to do this! Like i said, really really cool kids.
We decided to stay an extra day in Siem Reap today because we are totally knackered from our epic tour of the temples yesterday. We downgraded rooms from a $13 one to a mere $4- so bloody cheap. There's no windows in the room but there's a toilet so we are happy.
Tomorrow we are moving onto Phnom Penh at 6:30 am. More adventures to be had soon- yay!
Siem Reap
hello all! mcgee here guest blogging for Josh...
So after a sleepless night of listening to the band playing asian
country rock til oh my god way past when any normal human could listen
to it we got up to make our way to the border town. Everyone had told
us how we needed to watch out because the Cambodian border agents are
completely corrupt and will always try to scam you out of money so we
were kind of wary when we got there of what they might ask for. Plus
also we had no idea how to get to Siem Reap but since things had
worked out well so far we decided to hazard it.
Queueing up in the foreigners section we wedged ourselves between
couple after couple of old white menn with thai bride types (seriously
its more uncommon to see and old white man with an old white woman
here). I think they go for the gambling that's in the weird no-mans
land between Cambodia and thailand called Poipet. It's like half a k
wide and all it contains is the border controls and 4 casinos.
We got a share cab from the border to Sien Riep which is where all the
Angkor temples are- or should i say the Tomb Raider temples. Driving
through it was clear that close as it is to thailand, Cambodia is very
different. For a start tarmac roads are kind of rare and scattered
along them are shanty towns and empty fields that don't look like they
can grow anything. It's a hangover from the Khmer Rouge era when
basically the whole place had the sh*t bombed out of it. For anyone
who doesn't know much about it (like me and Josh) the whole Pol Pot
regime was completely devestating to the country and there was
something crazy like two million people killed in just a few years. He
killed everyone,literally everyone, who was educated at all, or who
was politically opposed or even who wore glasses. So now Cambodia is
building itself back up again but it's still pretty scarred. As a
result of all this though there is this strange thing where all the
business people are incredibly young, like our age. You definatley get
the feeling that the young people are driving the country forward.
Every market stall and tuk tuk and restaurant, even our hotel is run
by someone under 30.
Today we went along to the temples which was an epic tour of like 12
temples including Ta Prohm which is totally overrun with jungle vines
and giant tree roots. Basically its seriously cool, but only if you
are there and can see it so i won't bore you with the details. Just
maybe a picture or 20.
So after a sleepless night of listening to the band playing asian
country rock til oh my god way past when any normal human could listen
to it we got up to make our way to the border town. Everyone had told
us how we needed to watch out because the Cambodian border agents are
completely corrupt and will always try to scam you out of money so we
were kind of wary when we got there of what they might ask for. Plus
also we had no idea how to get to Siem Reap but since things had
worked out well so far we decided to hazard it.
Queueing up in the foreigners section we wedged ourselves between
couple after couple of old white menn with thai bride types (seriously
its more uncommon to see and old white man with an old white woman
here). I think they go for the gambling that's in the weird no-mans
land between Cambodia and thailand called Poipet. It's like half a k
wide and all it contains is the border controls and 4 casinos.
We got a share cab from the border to Sien Riep which is where all the
Angkor temples are- or should i say the Tomb Raider temples. Driving
through it was clear that close as it is to thailand, Cambodia is very
different. For a start tarmac roads are kind of rare and scattered
along them are shanty towns and empty fields that don't look like they
can grow anything. It's a hangover from the Khmer Rouge era when
basically the whole place had the sh*t bombed out of it. For anyone
who doesn't know much about it (like me and Josh) the whole Pol Pot
regime was completely devestating to the country and there was
something crazy like two million people killed in just a few years. He
killed everyone,literally everyone, who was educated at all, or who
was politically opposed or even who wore glasses. So now Cambodia is
building itself back up again but it's still pretty scarred. As a
result of all this though there is this strange thing where all the
business people are incredibly young, like our age. You definatley get
the feeling that the young people are driving the country forward.
Every market stall and tuk tuk and restaurant, even our hotel is run
by someone under 30.
Today we went along to the temples which was an epic tour of like 12
temples including Ta Prohm which is totally overrun with jungle vines
and giant tree roots. Basically its seriously cool, but only if you
are there and can see it so i won't bore you with the details. Just
maybe a picture or 20.
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Aranya Prathet
We stayed a night in this small Thai village that sits on the border or Cambodia. The crossing closes at 5pm so exhausted, we found ourselves a guesthouse. We met a Swiss couple who were really nice and had just come across into Thailand from Cambodia. We had dinner with them at this pub that is literally next to the house we're in. By that I mean we can see onto the pub's elaborate stage from our bathroom. The pub has this weird clashing set of themes. Firstly there's Manchester United flags everywhere and two screens with the football on. Also there are cow skulls on the walls with lightbulbs sticking out the eye sockets. There's a massive flag hung across the ceiling that says State of California.
The stage has a bunch of amplifiers and a drumkit. Eventually we head off to get some sleep before our big day of border crossing action tomorrow. At about 10pm this live band starts playing. Loud. We can hear everything. I can only describe is as Thai country-rock. They are all awful at the instruments in their own unique way. The drummer is playing the same beat and the same fill frequently. The bass is doing the same rythm, same notes oh god it's terrible. The vocalist. Dear lord. His wailing Thai voice with American-country sensibilities. The guitarist isn't bad. This goes on until 1am. Turns out it's the full-moon party this particular evening. In most party hubs in the country people celebrate by getting trashed on a combination of herbs, fungus and alcohol and dance till the sun comes up. Not in this otherwise sleepy border town. Here it's all about country-rock performed to the 7 members of staff and at the most 2 guests.
The stage has a bunch of amplifiers and a drumkit. Eventually we head off to get some sleep before our big day of border crossing action tomorrow. At about 10pm this live band starts playing. Loud. We can hear everything. I can only describe is as Thai country-rock. They are all awful at the instruments in their own unique way. The drummer is playing the same beat and the same fill frequently. The bass is doing the same rythm, same notes oh god it's terrible. The vocalist. Dear lord. His wailing Thai voice with American-country sensibilities. The guitarist isn't bad. This goes on until 1am. Turns out it's the full-moon party this particular evening. In most party hubs in the country people celebrate by getting trashed on a combination of herbs, fungus and alcohol and dance till the sun comes up. Not in this otherwise sleepy border town. Here it's all about country-rock performed to the 7 members of staff and at the most 2 guests.
Monday, 9 March 2009
Journey to the border
We departed Ko Samet today bright and early to head towards Cambodia. The rickety boat took us to the shifty sea village on Ban Phet. Last night the guy behind the bar (who was from Laos) told us that Ban Phet was closer to Cambodia and that we need not backtrack to Bangkok. We learned that we could find our way from Ban Phet to the border. Once we got off the boat, We went to the only tourist establishment to find a way to our next destination. They quoted us a ridiculous price to get to Cambodia. We took a minute to sit down and think about our predicament. We declined the minibus to the border (the only one for the day) and tried to come up with something. Fortunately for us we changed some currency at a little bar owned by an American guy. He told us that we could get public buses and make our way to a town on the border where we could stay for the night, then make our way across the next day. We got on motorcycles with our rucksacks and headed for the freeway which wasn't the best way for me to have my first motorcycle ride but in a couple of minutes we were on the side of the road waiting for a public bus which came promptly an hour later.
We took this piece of crap for a few hours to a bus depot town called Chantaburi. On this bus we were treated to some excellent progressive Thai rock. We got on another bus for 4 hours which took us to the middle of nowhere, and another bus from there to Aranya, a small Thai village that sits on the Cambodian-Thai border. Fumbling our way to this point by pointing and trying to figure out what was going on at any point was pretty hilarious, and so
very cheap.
We took this piece of crap for a few hours to a bus depot town called Chantaburi. On this bus we were treated to some excellent progressive Thai rock. We got on another bus for 4 hours which took us to the middle of nowhere, and another bus from there to Aranya, a small Thai village that sits on the Cambodian-Thai border. Fumbling our way to this point by pointing and trying to figure out what was going on at any point was pretty hilarious, and so
very cheap.
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Ko Samet
After a 4 hour bus journey out of the city we arrived at a small fishing village. There we leapt fearlessly off a jetty onto a small boat which was filled way past max capacity with people as well as goods which included mussels and chicken feed. 45 minutes later we arrived on the island of Ko Samet.
We spent the day under a large umbrella on the beach with the sea in front of us and a delightful little bar behind us. Lots of swimming, eating, drinking and a whole lot of nothing.
It's pretty different from Bangkok. We got to ride on the back of a truck packed with Thai people which took us to one of the 5 main beach areas on the island. We were able to find a guesthouse and head to the beach pretty quickly.
This bar/restaurant on the beach is awesome. What a great place to have dinner. We had the best seafood fried rice ever. Easily. Also a whole, fresh red snapper that continued to cook on a little grill on our table, and fresh prawns. All on the beach under these little lanterns. Definitely one of my favourite dining experiences.
Ko Samet is an excellent place to chill-out, unwind and scrub off any memories about riding the tube, or having a job. Now we're going to decide whether to go north or head to Cambodia.
Friday, 6 March 2009
Khao San
Hey everyone. We've moved to another guesthouse in the very bustling Kaosan road region. The atmosphere here is completely different to the old place. For starters it's cranking 24/7. It's the main area in Banglamphu and it's the most crowded. The street we're on is lined with guesthouses, all of which have bars that sprawl out onto the street. There are excellent food vendors here, and just about anything you might want to buy will eventually be rolled up to you on a cart of some variety.
This is the best meal I've had so far. It's pork with garlic and lemongrass and all kinds of things. So damn tasty. We've gone through all the favourites, pad thai (I think they just call it pad here in case you were wondering Jeremy), seafood fried rice, tom yum. And the snacks, oh god the snacks. I had this cluster of deep-fried prawns for desert one evening and that was espescially good for a post-dinner treat.Very educational signs on guesthouses have taught us that there's this tuk-tuk scam about in which drivers will say that they'll take you ANYWHERE YOU WANT for 10baht, except you have to induge him on one stop. This stop happens to be at a tacky jewellery / tailor store. Also there are GANGSTERS about that want you to go visit the temple with them so that they can then sell you a bunch of services that they won't actually provide/you didn't want anyway. We encountered both these things and thanks to the poorly written signs were able to stay clear. A couple of other travellers we met weren't so lucky and were treated to what I hear was an excellent store selling perfectly-crafted garments and gemns the likes of which they have never seen in the western world.
By day the streets are packed with stalls and people looking for bargains, and tables and chairs where you can eat your vendor purchased meals. By night it becomes a street-long bar area with make-shift bar carts showcasing their alocholic beverage selections. One sign read 'VERY VERY STRONG COCKTAILS" and another "FUCKING GOOD BEER". Once we had our fill of that for the night we treated to our guesthouse bar where the music started off with chill-out mixes and ended with some pretty offensive throwbacks from eurodance classics circa 1995. We played backgammon (it's like an old, analogue, wooden version of Starcraft as I understand it) and checkers while drinking cheap beer and whiskey. Then all of a sudden this baby elephant came by so I pat him for a bit.
Bangkok is pretty intense and although our four days here have been really great we're heading out to an island to hang out on the beach for a while. We've booked a boat tomorrow morning to head over to Ko Samet. Really looking forward to checking that place out, I've heard really good things and it's exciting heading anywhere we've never been. I'm expecting seafood.
This is what I had for breakfast today. Something involving pork, rice, and the biggest prawn I've ever consumed. One of the amusing highlights from the nightlife was a bar packed with foreigners singing along to this Thai acoustic guitarist / singer who was doing sing-a-long friendly covers of classics such as The Final Countdown and Umbrella. Hearing his female Thai backup singer yell "ella.. ech.. ech.. ech" was beautiful in its own special, piercing way. There's this radical dude sitting at the reception behind us wearing a bandana chatting up the receptionist. He just asked her for her name and now he's sort of working that, what time she finishes her shift, how she's going to be out partying out with them tonight, and her occupation into a horrible drunken song that he's belting out on an acoustic guitar he's just purchased. Funny stuff.
Yesterday there was this drunk hippie dude chatting up these two girls and he asked if he could smoke some of their shisha. The one-sided conversation that ensued was Curb Your Enthusiasm levels of awkward for the two girls.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
We're in Thailand
Hey everyoneWe're here in Bangkok in this area called Banglamphu. It's really busy with street vendors selling very tasty food and we're staying at a really nice guesthouse. Tomorrow we're going to move onto a different guesthouse an hour away where all the backpackers tend to stay. We went there this afternoon to explore more of the city and it's pretty crazy. The food is just delicious, we've been eating at markets and little street vendors. We took a tuk tuk ride back to where we're staying which was quite thrilling, weaving in and out of traffic on a vehicle with no door. I feared for my life at several points. Good times.
We have this room at the top floor of the guesthouse which has air conditioning and boy is it necessary. It's so hot here. We talked to a couple of other travellers and did some reading and we think we might head over to Ko Samet, which is this little island with amazing beaches where we will probably spend a few days hanging out before we contemplate our next move. It's stange being in a place where English isn't really understood by the locals. We're getting by, lots of pointing mainly.
We got some cheap clothes and I got my head shaved in an attempt to deal with the sudden change in temperature. It's busy but it has a pretty friendly vibe to it.It's taking a while for our minds to unwind and realise that we don't have a job to go to or a tube to catch at any point. It's really, really relaxing being here. There's a lot to learn and it's really exciting. I just learned how to haggle after some practice and got some very cheap memory cards, so photos will soon follow.
We have this room at the top floor of the guesthouse which has air conditioning and boy is it necessary. It's so hot here. We talked to a couple of other travellers and did some reading and we think we might head over to Ko Samet, which is this little island with amazing beaches where we will probably spend a few days hanging out before we contemplate our next move. It's stange being in a place where English isn't really understood by the locals. We're getting by, lots of pointing mainly.
We got some cheap clothes and I got my head shaved in an attempt to deal with the sudden change in temperature. It's busy but it has a pretty friendly vibe to it.It's taking a while for our minds to unwind and realise that we don't have a job to go to or a tube to catch at any point. It's really, really relaxing being here. There's a lot to learn and it's really exciting. I just learned how to haggle after some practice and got some very cheap memory cards, so photos will soon follow.
Monday, 2 February 2009
Snow Day
London was completely owned by the snow today shutting down the trains, buses and even the airports. This meant that 80% of the people (us included) did not attend work. Instead we had an awesome day at home.
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Moving on out
Today we said our goodbyes to our flat on Mountgrove Road in Arsenal which we've called home for over a year now. We had some great times in that place.A really tough weekend that's left us all cranky, tired and emotional. We're off to Southwark to stay with Jeremy & Josie.
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