From Phom Penh we arrived in the beach town of Sianouksville, Cambodia's 3rd tourist hot spot after the capital itself and Siem Reap. Although the place felt seedy and had a famous reputation for bag snatching and scams, when we arrived at the beach for sunset and grabbed a couple of very cheap drinks, we felt great to be on the beach again after 2 1/2 months.
We took a boat snorkelling and spent part of the day on 'Bamboo Island' sitting in the hot hot sea watching poor tourists get urchins in their extremities.
The downside to Sianouksville as we saw it was the amount of children working and begging on the beach. There were also plenty of adults doing the same thing, and Kae and I had to develop tactics such as speaking in pretend French to deflect them. One young boy offered to play a game of naughts and crosses. If I win I get a free bracelet, if I lose I buy a bracelet. I naively asked him how much the bracelet might cost me, and then quickly changed my mind and said we should just play for fun. He told me that he hopes my plane will crash on my flight home, told me ''you are bad man" for emphasis and then sauntered off to the next table to do the same thing all over again.
The upside of the seaside town is the ridiculously cheap seafood bbq. 3 large prawns, a barracuda fillet and 3 squids with chips and salad for $2.50, with cold draught beer at 50c a glass. We had this exact same meal three times before we left.
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
Phnom Penh
In Phnom Penh we set ourselves up in a little windowless room and spent 5 days drinking fancy cocktails in classy colonial buildings such as the Foreign Correspondants Club, and places with a swimming pool and eating luxurious Western food like fondue and top class pizza for $6 a pop. We got a taste of the high life and our budget has never been the same since!
Kratchie
After a panic in Ban Lung, where we couldn't take out any money with Káe's Cirrus card, we wired $400 over with Western Transfer, at just under a 10% charge. With this we took the bus to Kratchie, and cycled with a Leed's gap year guy called Will and a Liverpudlian who hates football called Ed to find the rare irrawaddy dolphin, a freshwater dolphin with stumpy heads found in the Mekong.
There are meant to be only about 75 left in the river, and we must have seen all of them. We spent about 45 minutes in a hired boat and they kept bobbing up to breath all around us! Endangered my arse.
The cycle to and fro was great, and the Cambodians were proving to be just as friendly as the Laoatians, with a more savvy attitude and extremely good English from the earliest age.
One of the most talkative characters I've met runs a book shop in Kratchie, and among recommending an itinerary for Angkor Wat, he told us a little about the effects of the recent war with the Khmer Rouge. He had some friendly, equally overtly camp staff sitting watching telly across the shop and he pointed to one saying "his parents did very well out of the war, and were Khmer Rouge," he pointed to the guy sat next to him and said, "his parents suffered terribly at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, but noone talks about any of it, even though everyone over 40 has some memory of it."
Even with all the political undercurrents, the disturbing amounts of one legged landmine victims, more begging than I have ever seen by the old, the crippled and children, and more children working and selling things than I'm comfortable with, and so far really bad food, we were both starting to enjoy travelling through Cambodia.
There are meant to be only about 75 left in the river, and we must have seen all of them. We spent about 45 minutes in a hired boat and they kept bobbing up to breath all around us! Endangered my arse.
The cycle to and fro was great, and the Cambodians were proving to be just as friendly as the Laoatians, with a more savvy attitude and extremely good English from the earliest age.
One of the most talkative characters I've met runs a book shop in Kratchie, and among recommending an itinerary for Angkor Wat, he told us a little about the effects of the recent war with the Khmer Rouge. He had some friendly, equally overtly camp staff sitting watching telly across the shop and he pointed to one saying "his parents did very well out of the war, and were Khmer Rouge," he pointed to the guy sat next to him and said, "his parents suffered terribly at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, but noone talks about any of it, even though everyone over 40 has some memory of it."
Even with all the political undercurrents, the disturbing amounts of one legged landmine victims, more begging than I have ever seen by the old, the crippled and children, and more children working and selling things than I'm comfortable with, and so far really bad food, we were both starting to enjoy travelling through Cambodia.
Cambodia, Ban Lung
The Laos-Cambodian border crossing is a little suspect. Cambodian officials charge a dollar here for taking your temperature, a dollar there for ádministration', but they've been the same for years so we don't think too much of it. According to some watchdog, Cambodia is the 13th most corrupt country out of 162 on record, although how they measure this I don't know.
Cambodia also has the most active landmines sitting around than any country in the world!
Watch your step, then.
We carried on our bus journey to Ban Lung, and what a mess. It looked to me like someone had eaten a town in Laos and puked it back up in Cambodia. Kaeleigh said it reminded her of India.
We found a gigantic room here for $5, with a huge bath tub and telly etc. Easily the best bargain accomodation to date.
We did a day trip with guides on motos to some waterfalls, a 90 minute elephant ride where the elephant mosied around eating bamboo and drinking, and a long swim in a volcanic crater lake.
During this we were served the first meal that we couldn't stomach, $5 worth of old, dried meat. I was thinking of what I was told on the cooking course in Laos: "more flies, more flavour". and we gave the whole thing to our tourguides.
Walking around the lake after a swim, we saw 2 big snakes rush past us, both over 2m long. We told our guide, who hunts for them in the dry season. He reckoned on cobras, and said you can get $10 per kilo at the markets for them.
Cambodia also has the most active landmines sitting around than any country in the world!
Watch your step, then.
We carried on our bus journey to Ban Lung, and what a mess. It looked to me like someone had eaten a town in Laos and puked it back up in Cambodia. Kaeleigh said it reminded her of India.
We found a gigantic room here for $5, with a huge bath tub and telly etc. Easily the best bargain accomodation to date.
We did a day trip with guides on motos to some waterfalls, a 90 minute elephant ride where the elephant mosied around eating bamboo and drinking, and a long swim in a volcanic crater lake.
During this we were served the first meal that we couldn't stomach, $5 worth of old, dried meat. I was thinking of what I was told on the cooking course in Laos: "more flies, more flavour". and we gave the whole thing to our tourguides.
Walking around the lake after a swim, we saw 2 big snakes rush past us, both over 2m long. We told our guide, who hunts for them in the dry season. He reckoned on cobras, and said you can get $10 per kilo at the markets for them.
Don Det (4000 Islands)
Our last stop in Laos, Don Det is one of 4000 Island in the river Mekong near the Cambodian border.
The main event of our 2 nights here was a guy we met in Luang Prabang's 30th birthday party. It was about 30 people strong, and after the bar we headed down to the beach where I made a fire and it was a good way to finish our trip through Laos.
We found a Minsk motorbike for sale on the island for $200, and decided to buy it from them to travel through Cambodia on if they could fix the headlight, horn and indicators. Unfortunately they couldn't do this before our visa had overrun by 2 days, and we caught up with our bus by moto at the Cambodian border.
The main event of our 2 nights here was a guy we met in Luang Prabang's 30th birthday party. It was about 30 people strong, and after the bar we headed down to the beach where I made a fire and it was a good way to finish our trip through Laos.
We found a Minsk motorbike for sale on the island for $200, and decided to buy it from them to travel through Cambodia on if they could fix the headlight, horn and indicators. Unfortunately they couldn't do this before our visa had overrun by 2 days, and we caught up with our bus by moto at the Cambodian border.
Tha Kaek
Still with Tim, Nath, Francis and Brad, we took the bus to Tha Kaek and stayed the night in the seediest guesthouse to date.
We managed to arrange a 3 day, 450km motorbike tour the next day, with a boat trip through the 7km long Kong Lo cave as the main attraction. A Dutch girl called Juliette joined us at the last minute, and the 7 of us sped off on 4 scooters.
This trip turned out to be a stormer thanks to a variation of good and bad roads, gutsy little scooters, cheap repair shops, lot's of cathedral sized caves and running rivers to get stuck into, plenty of great views, meals and people and some time spent in rural Laos.
After a couple of hours the first obstacle was Juliette's bike leaking oil. We flagged down a few people and finally managed to make a phone call and have her bike replaced. Tim's bike had 3 punctures over the 3 days, one at 85kph, and he held the skid brilliantly! Kae burnt her leg badly on our exhaust, Nath rode his bike into a tree next to him from a standing start, with the damage to the stand being fixed Clarkson style with a hammer, I somehow got halfway through a doughnut when accidentally starting my bike in 1st gear, Neither Tim and Nath's bike or mine and Kae's bike had a working headlight or rearlight, and we all drove back for about over an hour in the dark on the last night, extremely carefully because of how many maniac farm animals wander about, and everyone apart from me and Kae ran out of petrol at least once.
These slightly dramatic moments transmogrified the trip, and made surviving the journey more rewarding. Other hightlights include the final day's mazy mountain road climb and decent, with perfectly smooth roads and ancient forest all around; the 62km off-road track on the second day, that took over 3 hours and was not suitable for scooters, but cut through more great rainforest; stopping whenever we liked for a drink or some food or a break, which was a great freedom after months of bus and train travel; meeting and greeting the locals, especially with Nath, the only person as enthusiastic as the Laos people; Kong Lo cave, which is 7km long, and at some points 100m wide and tall, with a lit up section that we explored on foot that looked like another planet, cheesy sci-fi scenery style; the thank-god-it's-all-over dinner and drinks.
We managed to arrange a 3 day, 450km motorbike tour the next day, with a boat trip through the 7km long Kong Lo cave as the main attraction. A Dutch girl called Juliette joined us at the last minute, and the 7 of us sped off on 4 scooters.
This trip turned out to be a stormer thanks to a variation of good and bad roads, gutsy little scooters, cheap repair shops, lot's of cathedral sized caves and running rivers to get stuck into, plenty of great views, meals and people and some time spent in rural Laos.
After a couple of hours the first obstacle was Juliette's bike leaking oil. We flagged down a few people and finally managed to make a phone call and have her bike replaced. Tim's bike had 3 punctures over the 3 days, one at 85kph, and he held the skid brilliantly! Kae burnt her leg badly on our exhaust, Nath rode his bike into a tree next to him from a standing start, with the damage to the stand being fixed Clarkson style with a hammer, I somehow got halfway through a doughnut when accidentally starting my bike in 1st gear, Neither Tim and Nath's bike or mine and Kae's bike had a working headlight or rearlight, and we all drove back for about over an hour in the dark on the last night, extremely carefully because of how many maniac farm animals wander about, and everyone apart from me and Kae ran out of petrol at least once.
These slightly dramatic moments transmogrified the trip, and made surviving the journey more rewarding. Other hightlights include the final day's mazy mountain road climb and decent, with perfectly smooth roads and ancient forest all around; the 62km off-road track on the second day, that took over 3 hours and was not suitable for scooters, but cut through more great rainforest; stopping whenever we liked for a drink or some food or a break, which was a great freedom after months of bus and train travel; meeting and greeting the locals, especially with Nath, the only person as enthusiastic as the Laos people; Kong Lo cave, which is 7km long, and at some points 100m wide and tall, with a lit up section that we explored on foot that looked like another planet, cheesy sci-fi scenery style; the thank-god-it's-all-over dinner and drinks.
VangVieng
Throughout Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, travellers would mention this place to us because of one thing: Tubing. It's not floating down a river on a tractors inner tube that they would talk about, thought - it's their new , the injuries they saw, and how several people die every year on the massive rope swings and giant slides!
We took a seriously sweaty bus with the lads from Luang Prabang to the capital, Vientiene, and stopped there while Tim extended his visa. After 5 hours, in which Kae bought 2 new dvds for 5000kip each, we were happy to be moving on from the slightly depressing city and towards the tourist hole of Vang Vieng.
Kae and I found a room on a cliff edge with beautiful views of forests and sheer cliffs, and unfortunately overlooking the late night clubs. Walking around the small town and we heard The Simpsons, Family Guy or Friends on repeat in every otherwise identical restaurant, serving the worst food in Laos. There are easily twice as many Westerners than locals, and everyone has the same idea - get drunk and go tubing! So we put on our sheep's clothing and joined the herd.
Happily, the Northerners we met in China were about, and we joined them for some drinks and went rock climbing with Tom the next morning, where we learnt the 'pinch' technique. So there we were pinching our way up rock faces, and for all the sweating and pinching and struggling, it was great. We did two climbs, a level 6A and 7A climb, but my pinching wasn't up to the 7A climb.
That afternoon Kae and I went to meet the lads at the tubing, where we saw the huge rope swings and riverside bars. I hadn't the strength in my grip to open my can of beer, thanks to a slow and painful defeat on the 7A rock face, and couldn't hold onto a rope swing. There are better reasons not to swing back and forth 40 feet in the air with potentially fatal consequences, but mine was weedy forearms. In any case it was pretty spectacular to sit and watch. There were a couple of dangerous moments where people got tangled up in the ropes, one person round the neck, and although they screamed and panicked a bit, no-one was hurt.
A couple of days in this town was enough for us. We had been enjoying the Laos lifestyle and people and Vang Vieng had neither, so we left for Tha Kaek, and a 3 day motorbike tour.
We took a seriously sweaty bus with the lads from Luang Prabang to the capital, Vientiene, and stopped there while Tim extended his visa. After 5 hours, in which Kae bought 2 new dvds for 5000kip each, we were happy to be moving on from the slightly depressing city and towards the tourist hole of Vang Vieng.
Kae and I found a room on a cliff edge with beautiful views of forests and sheer cliffs, and unfortunately overlooking the late night clubs. Walking around the small town and we heard The Simpsons, Family Guy or Friends on repeat in every otherwise identical restaurant, serving the worst food in Laos. There are easily twice as many Westerners than locals, and everyone has the same idea - get drunk and go tubing! So we put on our sheep's clothing and joined the herd.
Happily, the Northerners we met in China were about, and we joined them for some drinks and went rock climbing with Tom the next morning, where we learnt the 'pinch' technique. So there we were pinching our way up rock faces, and for all the sweating and pinching and struggling, it was great. We did two climbs, a level 6A and 7A climb, but my pinching wasn't up to the 7A climb.
That afternoon Kae and I went to meet the lads at the tubing, where we saw the huge rope swings and riverside bars. I hadn't the strength in my grip to open my can of beer, thanks to a slow and painful defeat on the 7A rock face, and couldn't hold onto a rope swing. There are better reasons not to swing back and forth 40 feet in the air with potentially fatal consequences, but mine was weedy forearms. In any case it was pretty spectacular to sit and watch. There were a couple of dangerous moments where people got tangled up in the ropes, one person round the neck, and although they screamed and panicked a bit, no-one was hurt.
A couple of days in this town was enough for us. We had been enjoying the Laos lifestyle and people and Vang Vieng had neither, so we left for Tha Kaek, and a 3 day motorbike tour.
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