Stuck in Sihanoukville
Hello from southern Cambodia...
WOAHHH...what an amazing place Cambodia is...breathtakingly beautiful and insanely old temples (some date back to the 7th century!) so much poverty, such nice people, such a crazy mixed up history...
I can't post any photos right now...we have over 350 on our camera including some from climbing Fuji but I'll get to it when I can...
Sooo, quickly summing up since we left Jay-pan, spent a few days in Bangkok, half day cycling tour around the nearby island which was like a jungle, battling through the crowds at thew Chatachuk markets trying to find the perfect pair of copy Dickies (failing miserably...) then we headed on a 6 hour train ride from Bangkok (leaving at 6am) on a rickety old train that cost us 48 baht each (AU$1.85) and cut through the ugly border into an even uglier border town of Poipet in Cambodia...much stress had...
Then the most ridiculous road I have ever travelled on...in the guidebook it says it takes about 2 hours...we took over 4...the buses apparently took 8 hours to drive 150kms...the road was dirt and a small child could get lost in some of the potholes...
Siem Reap and our cycling tour begins with Angkor Wat and the small circle of temples...I never knew this place really existed...It is so beautiful, so amazing and the Khmer people are so proud of it, it is on their flag and their money and as it should be...these ruins and temples date back to the 9th century and absolutely knocked my socks off...the intricate stone carvings the amazing condition of some of them and the poor condition of others due to looting...
I will post some photos later...
Stand out temples for us were of course Angkor Wat but the jungle filled Ta Prohm was awesome as well as the Prasat Bayon with all the faces staring out from all the towers in every direction...
So on our tour we saw many temples and ruins, we did a lot of cycling through the country, everybody coming out to yell hello (or if they didn't know hello, oookkkaaayyy!!) and asking our guide in Khmer why we were riding in sweltering heat when we could afford a car or motorcycle....crazy white people!
Very friendly people the Khmers...
From there we rode up a very big hill (me half the way, Khan all the way) to a waterfall and then spent the night in a pagoda of a small village which was a monastery right at the top of the hill...we fell asleep to the sounds of the monks chanting and also woke up to it, early early the next morning...
Apparently we had some soldiers staying with us 'for protection'. I only found out about it the next morning when Khan mentioned to our guide he thought he saw a guy with a rifle in the pagoda with us...lucky or there's no way i could have slept! For protection? Protection against what?!? Randy monks? Or are there still Khmer Rouge soldiers still hiding out somewhere in those remote hills? Who knows...
Anyways,
we then proceeded south, more temples with more children trying to sell you postcards (10 for one doolllahhh), scarves, books, whistles, cold drinks and anything...some of these kids were great, in one of the temples there were some kids who could count to 10 in Khmer, English, Spanish, German, French and almost Japanese...very smart little kids all looking for one dollar to help with their schooling...in the end we bought some pens and handed them out to a few of the kids that we took a shine to...Tho it's not much when all they want is that dollar...
Uuuummmm, we went to Phnom Penh, checked out the National Museum with a few of the more delicate sculptures and bits that had been looted and then guiltily returned from the Angkorian ruins.
We also went to the Tsol Sleng Museum where prisoners were held during the Khmer Rouge revolution...Amazingly horrific and disturbing images of people who'd died in those very rooms of a converted school. I still don't understand the whole time and why and want to do some more reading on it...Our driver had apparently been a soldier and had been at a camp when in the night Khmer Rouge soldiers came down and slit the throats of 12 of his friends that were with him, i'm not sure how he managed to escape but didn't want to press too much...So many people were tortured and killed during that time, we also went to the memorial site where there were mass graves and a huge tower stands there now with the skulls of hundreds who were killed there...you can walk around the shallow holes that were the graves and there's pieces of clothing sticking out of the ground which were peoples clothing...really very disturbing...
anyways, out of Phnom Pehn and to Kep a small seaside village and some relaly nice bungalows...
Rode 25kms to Kampot the next day then went into Bokor National Park up a horrid road with massive holes and managed to scew my back up...through the jungle to an old French settlement on a hill...casino, church and a few other buildings are in ruins around the place...not worth the drive i'd say
then to Sihanoukville where we have been for the past 3 or 4 days (i can't quite remember...losing track too much) we caught a boat over to Bamboo island which was really nice but it was the first time for our guide and driver to be on the ocean in a boat so they didn't look very well on the trip over or back...managed to get very sunburnt even tho we were reapplying every 15 minutes...
We said farwell to our guide and driver and have been eating and drinking on the beach. The weather has just turned a bit bad and we were going to leave today but the ferry is not running and all buses leave between 6-7am so we're stranded for the night. Can think of worse places to be...Poipet for instance...
We're catching the bus tomorrow to Ko Kong, just shy of the border then the next day will cross back into Thailand and head for Ko Samet for some more beach time.
We don't have to be back in Bangkok until the 23rd (to apply for our Russian visas)so we'll be there for just under a week...then back to the big stinky smoke...
Ok that's waaayyy too much for one post but now i've caught everybody up a little...must run as this is costing me...like $2...he eh
Anyways hope yr all well..
WOAHHH...what an amazing place Cambodia is...breathtakingly beautiful and insanely old temples (some date back to the 7th century!) so much poverty, such nice people, such a crazy mixed up history...
I can't post any photos right now...we have over 350 on our camera including some from climbing Fuji but I'll get to it when I can...
Sooo, quickly summing up since we left Jay-pan, spent a few days in Bangkok, half day cycling tour around the nearby island which was like a jungle, battling through the crowds at thew Chatachuk markets trying to find the perfect pair of copy Dickies (failing miserably...) then we headed on a 6 hour train ride from Bangkok (leaving at 6am) on a rickety old train that cost us 48 baht each (AU$1.85) and cut through the ugly border into an even uglier border town of Poipet in Cambodia...much stress had...
Then the most ridiculous road I have ever travelled on...in the guidebook it says it takes about 2 hours...we took over 4...the buses apparently took 8 hours to drive 150kms...the road was dirt and a small child could get lost in some of the potholes...
Siem Reap and our cycling tour begins with Angkor Wat and the small circle of temples...I never knew this place really existed...It is so beautiful, so amazing and the Khmer people are so proud of it, it is on their flag and their money and as it should be...these ruins and temples date back to the 9th century and absolutely knocked my socks off...the intricate stone carvings the amazing condition of some of them and the poor condition of others due to looting...
I will post some photos later...
Stand out temples for us were of course Angkor Wat but the jungle filled Ta Prohm was awesome as well as the Prasat Bayon with all the faces staring out from all the towers in every direction...
So on our tour we saw many temples and ruins, we did a lot of cycling through the country, everybody coming out to yell hello (or if they didn't know hello, oookkkaaayyy!!) and asking our guide in Khmer why we were riding in sweltering heat when we could afford a car or motorcycle....crazy white people!
Very friendly people the Khmers...
From there we rode up a very big hill (me half the way, Khan all the way) to a waterfall and then spent the night in a pagoda of a small village which was a monastery right at the top of the hill...we fell asleep to the sounds of the monks chanting and also woke up to it, early early the next morning...
Apparently we had some soldiers staying with us 'for protection'. I only found out about it the next morning when Khan mentioned to our guide he thought he saw a guy with a rifle in the pagoda with us...lucky or there's no way i could have slept! For protection? Protection against what?!? Randy monks? Or are there still Khmer Rouge soldiers still hiding out somewhere in those remote hills? Who knows...
Anyways,
we then proceeded south, more temples with more children trying to sell you postcards (10 for one doolllahhh), scarves, books, whistles, cold drinks and anything...some of these kids were great, in one of the temples there were some kids who could count to 10 in Khmer, English, Spanish, German, French and almost Japanese...very smart little kids all looking for one dollar to help with their schooling...in the end we bought some pens and handed them out to a few of the kids that we took a shine to...Tho it's not much when all they want is that dollar...
Uuuummmm, we went to Phnom Penh, checked out the National Museum with a few of the more delicate sculptures and bits that had been looted and then guiltily returned from the Angkorian ruins.
We also went to the Tsol Sleng Museum where prisoners were held during the Khmer Rouge revolution...Amazingly horrific and disturbing images of people who'd died in those very rooms of a converted school. I still don't understand the whole time and why and want to do some more reading on it...Our driver had apparently been a soldier and had been at a camp when in the night Khmer Rouge soldiers came down and slit the throats of 12 of his friends that were with him, i'm not sure how he managed to escape but didn't want to press too much...So many people were tortured and killed during that time, we also went to the memorial site where there were mass graves and a huge tower stands there now with the skulls of hundreds who were killed there...you can walk around the shallow holes that were the graves and there's pieces of clothing sticking out of the ground which were peoples clothing...really very disturbing...
anyways, out of Phnom Pehn and to Kep a small seaside village and some relaly nice bungalows...
Rode 25kms to Kampot the next day then went into Bokor National Park up a horrid road with massive holes and managed to scew my back up...through the jungle to an old French settlement on a hill...casino, church and a few other buildings are in ruins around the place...not worth the drive i'd say
then to Sihanoukville where we have been for the past 3 or 4 days (i can't quite remember...losing track too much) we caught a boat over to Bamboo island which was really nice but it was the first time for our guide and driver to be on the ocean in a boat so they didn't look very well on the trip over or back...managed to get very sunburnt even tho we were reapplying every 15 minutes...
We said farwell to our guide and driver and have been eating and drinking on the beach. The weather has just turned a bit bad and we were going to leave today but the ferry is not running and all buses leave between 6-7am so we're stranded for the night. Can think of worse places to be...Poipet for instance...
We're catching the bus tomorrow to Ko Kong, just shy of the border then the next day will cross back into Thailand and head for Ko Samet for some more beach time.
We don't have to be back in Bangkok until the 23rd (to apply for our Russian visas)so we'll be there for just under a week...then back to the big stinky smoke...
Ok that's waaayyy too much for one post but now i've caught everybody up a little...must run as this is costing me...like $2...he eh
Anyways hope yr all well..
posted by mazspazz at
10:35 PM
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