so today we went to the killing fields. this involved a reasonably long dusty and bumpy ride in a tuk tuk to an fairly rural location. where there was a large temple / shrine type structure, with 8000 skulls encased inside it. around the area were numerous grown over pits, from which these skulls were exumed in 81. it was pretty much horrifying. the ticket brochure tells us that they're working on building a restaurant, and reconstructing some of the different buildings that would have been at the site during the khmer rouge reign. its horrifying and saddening and overwhelming, watching these people realise that their horrific and painful past can be a major tourist attraction.
from the killing fields we went to the simbiotic s-21 museum. what was once a high school became a prison of turture and horror, from whence prisoners were trucked to the killing fields to be bludgeoned to death and piled into a mass grave. theres masses of photographs - each prisoner was photographed, and the evidence of torture and beatings is everywhere.
a lady acted as our guide around the prison. she explained to us that her family had been moved out of phnom penh, and ultimately her father and brothers died from starvation.
its overwhelmingly awful. so many times through history these types of atrocities have occured, but human kind doesnt seem to be capable of learning from its mistakes.
anyway. what else can be said?
laura plans to celebrate the new year with some kind of "clubbing" experience. we shall see.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Cultural wonders? or shopping?
so today got off to a late start after laura and i failed to click that the total darkness in our room was not indicative of it being the middle of the night, but rather indicative of us having a room without windows. anyway, it was probably worth it as i think we both had the most solid 12 hours sleep we've had since leaving australia (and for me at least probably for the last month or so). so we breakfasted on croissants (the french are good for something) before heading off about 11.30 to see the royal palace and the national museum. on coming to the national museum we became somewhat confused by the total lack of entrances that appeared to be in operation... consulting my trusty if somewhat dated lonely planet i discovered the reason for our distress - apparenlty 11 til 2.30 is lunch time. hmmm. at both the palace and museum. double hmm. what were we to do?? the remaining cultural hot spots (the killing fields and s21 musuem) had been our plan for tomorrow, with a slightly earlier start... our only remaining option was to head out to the russian market and do a spot of shopping. such a tragedy. so we got ourselves a friendly tuk tuk driver, who attempted to converse with us whilst driving, which was somewhat concerning... we made it to the markets unscathed, and now our driver proceeded to try and sell us further services - he would wait for us, 1 hr to 2hr... no no, we didnt know what our plans were.... tomorrow he would take us to the killing fields, to s 21, all day driver us around... well, maybe that would be good... he could pick us up from the hotel at 10am... that done and with further assurances that we did not want him to wait for us now, out we hopped and began to explore the market... having recently managed to lose my travel alarm, which had been our only clock, watches seemed like a sensible purchase. i had purchased a cheap digital watch early on in siem reap, but it broke within 12 hrs of the purchase, so i'd perservered without... so now i thought to myself, this time i'll by *quality* get me something that will last. And lo and behold if i dont soon find myself in front of a display of the best in quality time pieces, Rolexes. So now i have myself a fine piece of craftsmanship, that is bound to out last me, and all for the amazing low price of $10. Laura also purchased a watch, hers can tell two different times at once, and while it claims to be a casio, i personally suspect its a cheap ripoff... i dont know why she didnt get a genuine rolex like me.
we then found a nice little NGO shop that was all about the good causes, and thus justified stocking up on their wares.... finally reappearing from the markets after watching a two year old pee into a crack in the walk way that was apparently a gutter, which is apparently the same as a toilet, we decided to tuktuk it back to the hotel to unload our purchases before heading off to the cultural wonders...
so we climed aboard, and off we went..../
as we turned the corner and came back around to the side of the market we had first entered, who should start waving and yelling but our original tuk tuk driver who'd got us there... well, we told ourselves we'd told him not to wait, and to be honest we were so lost when we came out of the market we couldnt have found him anyway... so on we go, when shortly after, the original tuktuk driver pulls up along side of us, tells our current driver to pull over, explains to us that theyre "friends", pays off our current and somewhat bemused driver, and gets us to get out and change into his tuk tuk.... and we continue back to our hotel... where he attempts to charge us more than the original driver had quoted us...
all in all quite an experience.
and we did make it to the national museum (where another small child peed into a hedge) and then on to the palace, where we saw the much talked about "silver pagoda". Well, its so called because its floor is tiled with silver tiles. Let me just say that the silver tiles were being held together with packaging tape, in much the same way you'd stick down dodgy old lino.
lauras theory is that after angkor wat its bound to be hard to impress us... i suspect that i'm just not really interested in temples and the like to begin with...
another pleasant dinner and it appears we're headed for another early night.
they're are a lot of beggars in phnom penh, something we didnt really see in siem reap, its tragic and heart breaking and incredibly difficult to know what to do about. i'd thought that the selling postcards and guidebooks was more or less equivalent to begging, but now i see how wrong i was.
i feel like i could potentially do something useful here. my old plans of starting up a sweatshop and teaching locals how to sew and patternmake keep flooding back to me... but at the same time, i feel like its such a wretchedly colonial attitude to imagine that these people need me. sure they might need my money, but do i really have skills that couldnt be found here? maybe, it might be possible - tailoring isnt everywhere like vietnam, although basic sewing is... the more complex methods and high end finishes might be useful for people to learn... and a western sense of fashion might be useful is coming up with some new products that were a little more different and little less same same....
ah well, things to ponder into the future.
i cant believe they hung saddam hussein! as if world news continues to break when i'm not paying attention!!
we then found a nice little NGO shop that was all about the good causes, and thus justified stocking up on their wares.... finally reappearing from the markets after watching a two year old pee into a crack in the walk way that was apparently a gutter, which is apparently the same as a toilet, we decided to tuktuk it back to the hotel to unload our purchases before heading off to the cultural wonders...
so we climed aboard, and off we went..../
as we turned the corner and came back around to the side of the market we had first entered, who should start waving and yelling but our original tuk tuk driver who'd got us there... well, we told ourselves we'd told him not to wait, and to be honest we were so lost when we came out of the market we couldnt have found him anyway... so on we go, when shortly after, the original tuktuk driver pulls up along side of us, tells our current driver to pull over, explains to us that theyre "friends", pays off our current and somewhat bemused driver, and gets us to get out and change into his tuk tuk.... and we continue back to our hotel... where he attempts to charge us more than the original driver had quoted us...
all in all quite an experience.
and we did make it to the national museum (where another small child peed into a hedge) and then on to the palace, where we saw the much talked about "silver pagoda". Well, its so called because its floor is tiled with silver tiles. Let me just say that the silver tiles were being held together with packaging tape, in much the same way you'd stick down dodgy old lino.
lauras theory is that after angkor wat its bound to be hard to impress us... i suspect that i'm just not really interested in temples and the like to begin with...
another pleasant dinner and it appears we're headed for another early night.
they're are a lot of beggars in phnom penh, something we didnt really see in siem reap, its tragic and heart breaking and incredibly difficult to know what to do about. i'd thought that the selling postcards and guidebooks was more or less equivalent to begging, but now i see how wrong i was.
i feel like i could potentially do something useful here. my old plans of starting up a sweatshop and teaching locals how to sew and patternmake keep flooding back to me... but at the same time, i feel like its such a wretchedly colonial attitude to imagine that these people need me. sure they might need my money, but do i really have skills that couldnt be found here? maybe, it might be possible - tailoring isnt everywhere like vietnam, although basic sewing is... the more complex methods and high end finishes might be useful for people to learn... and a western sense of fashion might be useful is coming up with some new products that were a little more different and little less same same....
ah well, things to ponder into the future.
i cant believe they hung saddam hussein! as if world news continues to break when i'm not paying attention!!
Friday, December 29, 2006
next stop phnom penh
so today we moved from siem reap to phnom penh via a 6hr "limousine bus". we had a lazy morning at the hotel, before heading off to the 12.30 bus. it was pretty comfortable and well serviced (they kept talking in their brochures about how they looked forward to serving us) and we got in to phnom penh about 6pm. got a tuk tuk who took us to a couple of places with similar names before actually finding our hotel, which then appeared to not have our booking... after much confusion they gave us a room which is quite pleasant, although without a window. we then headed out for a quick dinner on the same street as our hotel, overlooking the river. bed is looking pretty appealing right now.
altogether not a particularly exciting day, but still interesting - watching the country side go past on the bus was pretty surreal... i still havent managed to shake this disneyland feeling - the only thing i could think of today was one of those buses that goes around places like monarto zoo, where even though the world outside looks real and seems to be right there, you still feel completely comfortable and safe inside the bus - thats what our whole trip seems like, i still feel pretty insulated from the really upsetting stuff, even though it really is right there in front of me... anyway, i'll give up trying to explain it, except perhaps to point out that this surreal insulated feel will probably fade pretty rapidly if and when i'm forced to use a squat toilet....!
tomorrow we will begin to immerse ourselves in a some of the horrific recent history of cambodia with visits to the museums and killing fields... perhaps that will shock me out of this disneyland feeling.
altogether not a particularly exciting day, but still interesting - watching the country side go past on the bus was pretty surreal... i still havent managed to shake this disneyland feeling - the only thing i could think of today was one of those buses that goes around places like monarto zoo, where even though the world outside looks real and seems to be right there, you still feel completely comfortable and safe inside the bus - thats what our whole trip seems like, i still feel pretty insulated from the really upsetting stuff, even though it really is right there in front of me... anyway, i'll give up trying to explain it, except perhaps to point out that this surreal insulated feel will probably fade pretty rapidly if and when i'm forced to use a squat toilet....!
tomorrow we will begin to immerse ourselves in a some of the horrific recent history of cambodia with visits to the museums and killing fields... perhaps that will shock me out of this disneyland feeling.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Pisces paradise
Hey everyone,
I realised on day two that Siem Reap is a Pisces paradise. I had this revelation as ash and I were negotiating our way though an intersection on our bikes. There was no structure or organisation to getting through intersection, you just kind of go in the direction you want to get to and avoid knocking into any one else on the way, it makes perfect sense to me. No messing around with traffic lights, keeping left or getting in the right lane to turn right, you just go for it. I feel at one with the traffic over here. Ashley on the other hand turns several shades paler each time we approach an intersection. when I got back to the guest house and looked as the way ash has packed her back pack in comparison to the way I packed mine I understood why the intersections make sense to me but makes Ashley look like she's going to be sick.
Everything here looks beautiful, maybe it's just because I'm used to boring western design but even the taxi's are decorated beautifully. the markets are colorful the food places are charming and the landscape is green and lush with lots of lakes with amazing water plants & pink and purple lily’s growing on top.
Siem reap also smells divine. It smells different in different places but always beautiful. Well all except for the fish market ... but they do say Pisces love seafood.
As Ashley has already told you we've spend most of our time here visiting the Angkor temples, eating, drinking incredibly cheep beer and shopping. Angkor Wat was really amazing. Of course I appreciated it for its incredible history, beauty and tranquility...... but I also did enjoy getting around pretending I was Lara Croft in tomb raider. See mum I knew playing hours and hours of video games was actually cultivating my appreciation of ancient history. Ashley had to stop me from pushing all the bricks to try to find the button that would release the bridge that would get me over the water to level 2.
While Ash stayed as close as she could to the dunny for the best part of the day, I sat drinking lovely fruit cocktails and reading in a lounge called le tigre de papier. I'm reading a book which I bought over here about S21 and the killing fields. Lots to say on that topic but I think it's best left for another time. Heading off by bus to Phnom Penh tomorrow. Not sure if we'll have internet connection where we're staying but we'll try to stay in touch
Vinda - thank you so much for organising the accommodation for us and please thank your dad too. So much to talk to you about when I get home!
Ann E- Looking forward to catching up with you all soon! I think my only advice on packing would be don't pack too much (more room for shopping!) But don't forget mozzie repellant, sunscreen & lots of face and anti bacterial wipes there quite expensive over here.
I know ash has already mentioned it but it's worth mentioning again, Last Christmas played as we ate our amok christmas dinner..... amazing! Oh yeah... and the Malaysian Smiths fan, that was hilarious, he sang "the more you ignore me the closer I get" to me ha ha ha smith fans of the world unite!
Happy New year!
lots of love
Lara
I realised on day two that Siem Reap is a Pisces paradise. I had this revelation as ash and I were negotiating our way though an intersection on our bikes. There was no structure or organisation to getting through intersection, you just kind of go in the direction you want to get to and avoid knocking into any one else on the way, it makes perfect sense to me. No messing around with traffic lights, keeping left or getting in the right lane to turn right, you just go for it. I feel at one with the traffic over here. Ashley on the other hand turns several shades paler each time we approach an intersection. when I got back to the guest house and looked as the way ash has packed her back pack in comparison to the way I packed mine I understood why the intersections make sense to me but makes Ashley look like she's going to be sick.
Everything here looks beautiful, maybe it's just because I'm used to boring western design but even the taxi's are decorated beautifully. the markets are colorful the food places are charming and the landscape is green and lush with lots of lakes with amazing water plants & pink and purple lily’s growing on top.
Siem reap also smells divine. It smells different in different places but always beautiful. Well all except for the fish market ... but they do say Pisces love seafood.
As Ashley has already told you we've spend most of our time here visiting the Angkor temples, eating, drinking incredibly cheep beer and shopping. Angkor Wat was really amazing. Of course I appreciated it for its incredible history, beauty and tranquility...... but I also did enjoy getting around pretending I was Lara Croft in tomb raider. See mum I knew playing hours and hours of video games was actually cultivating my appreciation of ancient history. Ashley had to stop me from pushing all the bricks to try to find the button that would release the bridge that would get me over the water to level 2.
While Ash stayed as close as she could to the dunny for the best part of the day, I sat drinking lovely fruit cocktails and reading in a lounge called le tigre de papier. I'm reading a book which I bought over here about S21 and the killing fields. Lots to say on that topic but I think it's best left for another time. Heading off by bus to Phnom Penh tomorrow. Not sure if we'll have internet connection where we're staying but we'll try to stay in touch
Vinda - thank you so much for organising the accommodation for us and please thank your dad too. So much to talk to you about when I get home!
Ann E- Looking forward to catching up with you all soon! I think my only advice on packing would be don't pack too much (more room for shopping!) But don't forget mozzie repellant, sunscreen & lots of face and anti bacterial wipes there quite expensive over here.
I know ash has already mentioned it but it's worth mentioning again, Last Christmas played as we ate our amok christmas dinner..... amazing! Oh yeah... and the Malaysian Smiths fan, that was hilarious, he sang "the more you ignore me the closer I get" to me ha ha ha smith fans of the world unite!
Happy New year!
lots of love
Lara
and now for the really fun part
so this morning laura and i began our planned day of shopping and relaxation (ie eating), our last day in siem reap. we wondered down to the main part of town to find ourselves some breakfast, we ordered, our food came, all is going swimmingly, when all of a sudden i get that feeling. that 'where the hell is the nearest toilet?' feeling. arghhh. so we've spent the day staying either close to the hotel or close to nice big western style restaurants whose bathrooms i can dash to. i now appear to have a fever as well (either that or i'm coping less well with the heat than i thought i was) so i've taken myself up to stage two of the self medicating chart, and have started the antibiotics. my medical books advice that most cases of 'TD' pass in 3 to 5 days is not particularly comforting. a big win for our decision to pay twice as much for the fancier bus with toilet for tomorrows 5 hr trip to phnom penh.
hmmm. in other news, the shopping continues to be ridiculous. and lauras obsession with being angelina jolie as lara croft has become obsessive. there is now a large series of photos of her posing in temples, and the 'i wonder if angelina jolie did this' comments continue to flow. last night we had dinner at the red piano after the lonely planet helpfully informed us that angelina jolie and the tomb raider crew had hung out there during filming. they even had a special cocktail which of course laura had to order. i'm hoping that the trip will provide increasingly fewer contexts for angelina jolie references. also if laura tries to make me choose between being brad pitt or maddox again we may actually come to blows.
we found an amazing lane way of shops last night, nice little fair trade arty type shops, after i'd spent all dinner outlining my plans for a cambodian sweatshop to provide exactly that kind of product. but hey the tourism markets booming, theres always room for one more westerner wanting to drop out of life and live in disney land.
probably should get back to the hotel and within closer distance to a bathroom.... i'm so grateful this place is highly geared to western tourists, so far not a squat toilet in sight!
hmmm. in other news, the shopping continues to be ridiculous. and lauras obsession with being angelina jolie as lara croft has become obsessive. there is now a large series of photos of her posing in temples, and the 'i wonder if angelina jolie did this' comments continue to flow. last night we had dinner at the red piano after the lonely planet helpfully informed us that angelina jolie and the tomb raider crew had hung out there during filming. they even had a special cocktail which of course laura had to order. i'm hoping that the trip will provide increasingly fewer contexts for angelina jolie references. also if laura tries to make me choose between being brad pitt or maddox again we may actually come to blows.
we found an amazing lane way of shops last night, nice little fair trade arty type shops, after i'd spent all dinner outlining my plans for a cambodian sweatshop to provide exactly that kind of product. but hey the tourism markets booming, theres always room for one more westerner wanting to drop out of life and live in disney land.
probably should get back to the hotel and within closer distance to a bathroom.... i'm so grateful this place is highly geared to western tourists, so far not a squat toilet in sight!
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
same same but different
when laura and i first got here we noticed that the tshirt range consists of lots of angkor and cambodia tshirts, and then one random one that says: "same same" and then on the back "but different". we didnt understand these tshirts and asked someone to explain them to us, but without much success. today as we wandered about more of angkor wat, we marvelled that we could ever have been confused - the market stalls are all same same but different, the food stalls same same but different, and i'm afraid after a while the temples, same same but different. which isnt to suggest that the temples arent amazing and completely worthwhile, just that without a particular interest in carving, religion, history, archeaology or the like, after a while its hard to remember which one you're looking at.... of course actually remembering to take the guide book with us may have assisted us in this struggle, but sadly we were without... nevertheless, it was still pretty amazing. riding around in a tuktuk was great, free airconditioning and only a slight feeling of looking like a colonial queen or an annoying american tourist. fortunately most of the white tourists appear to be french. remind me never to be come multilingual i'll just end up more perpetually annoyed.
in other noteworthy news, there was a triumph for my over organisation when laura ripped a chunk of skin off her toe walking into the internet cafe the othernight - did i have a bandaid? Check! did i have antiseptic? Check!
not much else to report today, about to go and look for some dinner... might have to try something other than amok tonight.... but first i need to investigate accomodation options for phnom penh. we still have another day here, but then its time to move on... the nice guest house people are organising a bus for us, we went with the flash toilet and airconditioning but, on the grounds that the relative cost to us is so small... i think its $10us for the 5 hr trip.
todays run in with adorable cambodian children with an acute sense of how to play the tourists involved two small children (the oldest maybe 80) who had themselves seated and posed on the path up to one of the temples, offering themselves up to tourist photographers... i quickly fought my inital urge to get snap happy and commented to laura that i had read about this, and if we wanted their photo we should prepared for them to demand cash.... so we made our way to the temple photographing strictly only ancient marvels... however on our return, the two had become 6 and had taken up a game of elastics. too adorable for words, laura decided the cost was indeed worth it... the kids are so attuned to us, they all know how to pose and smile, how to then quickly ask for cash, how to immediately divide into two smaller groups once you've handed over your dollar and suggest that you've infact only paid half the group... anyway. what can you do? saying no to small children has been one of the hardest parts... todays line from a postcard selling youth was 'you buy my postcards i go to school'.... you know its a line they've worked out from years of people looking at them with pity and asking if they go to school... its hard to gauge the relative poverty of the postcard selling children - are they making good money out of this or are they one step away from begging? is being a tuk tuk driver a good job? or being a massuer? hawking tshirts in the markets? the people seem pretty relaxed, and while the poverty compared to home is obvious, its hard to gauge just how acute it really is... while we've found most cambodians have a pretty good grasp of english, we havent yet found anyone we can probe about these issues.
ah well, better get accomodation hunting before its time to head out for yet more eating!
in other noteworthy news, there was a triumph for my over organisation when laura ripped a chunk of skin off her toe walking into the internet cafe the othernight - did i have a bandaid? Check! did i have antiseptic? Check!
not much else to report today, about to go and look for some dinner... might have to try something other than amok tonight.... but first i need to investigate accomodation options for phnom penh. we still have another day here, but then its time to move on... the nice guest house people are organising a bus for us, we went with the flash toilet and airconditioning but, on the grounds that the relative cost to us is so small... i think its $10us for the 5 hr trip.
todays run in with adorable cambodian children with an acute sense of how to play the tourists involved two small children (the oldest maybe 80) who had themselves seated and posed on the path up to one of the temples, offering themselves up to tourist photographers... i quickly fought my inital urge to get snap happy and commented to laura that i had read about this, and if we wanted their photo we should prepared for them to demand cash.... so we made our way to the temple photographing strictly only ancient marvels... however on our return, the two had become 6 and had taken up a game of elastics. too adorable for words, laura decided the cost was indeed worth it... the kids are so attuned to us, they all know how to pose and smile, how to then quickly ask for cash, how to immediately divide into two smaller groups once you've handed over your dollar and suggest that you've infact only paid half the group... anyway. what can you do? saying no to small children has been one of the hardest parts... todays line from a postcard selling youth was 'you buy my postcards i go to school'.... you know its a line they've worked out from years of people looking at them with pity and asking if they go to school... its hard to gauge the relative poverty of the postcard selling children - are they making good money out of this or are they one step away from begging? is being a tuk tuk driver a good job? or being a massuer? hawking tshirts in the markets? the people seem pretty relaxed, and while the poverty compared to home is obvious, its hard to gauge just how acute it really is... while we've found most cambodians have a pretty good grasp of english, we havent yet found anyone we can probe about these issues.
ah well, better get accomodation hunting before its time to head out for yet more eating!
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
you want massage ladies?
So, day two in siem reap. time to start the temples. the nice people at our guesthouse organised bikes for us, which were not too scary (although if we were at home we'd probably say they were)... after a few goes at lowering the seat i managed to actually get on mine and we set out for the temples. traffic being on the wrong side of the road remains confusing but not impossible.
so we saw angkor wat and yes the amazing wonders of the world were amazing BUT more amazing:
1. laura's fear of monkeys. at one point she had to choose between riding on the shoulder of the road next to the monkeys, or riding inside me and risk getting hit by a truck. she was less scared of the truck. at another point it was a choice between an elephant and monkeys, the elephant won.
2. laura's fear of chickens. the funniest point being when she had to negotiate her way between a monkey and a chicken.
3. we decided that we needed a massage. hmmm. a dubious choice when in south east asia. we randomly entered the first place we saw that asked "you want massage ladies?" and for some reason we felt a full body oil massage sounded on paper like a good idea. naturally once inside we began to question our sanity. we were not placated by being led up a set of back stairs to room of curtained off compartments. Fortunately or unfortunatley we ended up in the same compartment, lined with four single mattresses on the floor. our massage therapists indicated we should remove our clothing bar our knickers (largeley through tugging at our clothes and removing them for us) so anyway. we probably dont need to go into too much more detail, except to say we reappeared slightly traumatised, but not violated, and glistening with oil... an interesting way to spend $9. More delicious food (we keep eating amok because what if we have something else and its not as amazing???) and another jug of beer and time for us to stumble home to bed exhausted.
in other exciting news i discovered the on switch for the hot water this morning!!
today we're hiring a tuktuk to drive us around the temples for the day - hopefully today we'll spend more time inside the temples and less time at the market stalls outside the temples...
oh and we did get followed by a lot of small children trying to sell us various things yesterday - they have a number of approaches down pat - you tell them you dont need postcards and they'll start with the conversation "where you from ladies" "australia" "canberra! g'day mate!" then they'll start telling you the population of australia, of sydney and the name of the prime minister. when this doesnt impress you enough to buy something, they'll start with a range of other products... when its clear your not going to buy anything they start asking you for presents, candy, food, pens... eventually yesterday we got so far through this cycle with one group they started asking us if we wanted to buy hemp.... and then giggling hysterically at us...
interesting times.
everything remains amazing, and we still have no desire to ever go home. also got slightly more adventurous with our food and, touch wood, havent suffered for it yet!
Time to go find our tuk tuk and see some culture.
one day i'll actually let laura write on here i promise....
enjoy your return to work, suckers!
so we saw angkor wat and yes the amazing wonders of the world were amazing BUT more amazing:
1. laura's fear of monkeys. at one point she had to choose between riding on the shoulder of the road next to the monkeys, or riding inside me and risk getting hit by a truck. she was less scared of the truck. at another point it was a choice between an elephant and monkeys, the elephant won.
2. laura's fear of chickens. the funniest point being when she had to negotiate her way between a monkey and a chicken.
3. we decided that we needed a massage. hmmm. a dubious choice when in south east asia. we randomly entered the first place we saw that asked "you want massage ladies?" and for some reason we felt a full body oil massage sounded on paper like a good idea. naturally once inside we began to question our sanity. we were not placated by being led up a set of back stairs to room of curtained off compartments. Fortunately or unfortunatley we ended up in the same compartment, lined with four single mattresses on the floor. our massage therapists indicated we should remove our clothing bar our knickers (largeley through tugging at our clothes and removing them for us) so anyway. we probably dont need to go into too much more detail, except to say we reappeared slightly traumatised, but not violated, and glistening with oil... an interesting way to spend $9. More delicious food (we keep eating amok because what if we have something else and its not as amazing???) and another jug of beer and time for us to stumble home to bed exhausted.
in other exciting news i discovered the on switch for the hot water this morning!!
today we're hiring a tuktuk to drive us around the temples for the day - hopefully today we'll spend more time inside the temples and less time at the market stalls outside the temples...
oh and we did get followed by a lot of small children trying to sell us various things yesterday - they have a number of approaches down pat - you tell them you dont need postcards and they'll start with the conversation "where you from ladies" "australia" "canberra! g'day mate!" then they'll start telling you the population of australia, of sydney and the name of the prime minister. when this doesnt impress you enough to buy something, they'll start with a range of other products... when its clear your not going to buy anything they start asking you for presents, candy, food, pens... eventually yesterday we got so far through this cycle with one group they started asking us if we wanted to buy hemp.... and then giggling hysterically at us...
interesting times.
everything remains amazing, and we still have no desire to ever go home. also got slightly more adventurous with our food and, touch wood, havent suffered for it yet!
Time to go find our tuk tuk and see some culture.
one day i'll actually let laura write on here i promise....
enjoy your return to work, suckers!
Monday, December 25, 2006
we have landed
so. we are here, we are well.
flight from adelaide to KL was all good, individual tvs with endless tv and movies to choose from - how could that not be good!
arrived in KL and found our way to our transfer bus, along with some other weird australians... why are other tourists so annoying?? why are we the only non-annoying tourists? anyway, that was all ok, 50 min drive to our flash hotel... much confused about the time, but knew we were hungry so decided to try the hotel bar for food and drinks, even though by this time it was about 10pm local time and about 1am by our body clocks... the annoying australians came in handy for something as they gave us a rough idea of what the malaysian prices equated to Australian dollars... beer was as expensive as food and almost as expensive as a cocktail (equivalent to about $8) what more motiviation did we need to drink long island ice teas??
next morning got up early for our buffet breakfast, forgot it was christmas until the waiters all jumped at the opportunity to excessively merry christmas us. laura was much excited when the chef noticed her smiths tshirt, and not only knew the smiths but started quoting smiths lyrics at her...
had an interesting breakfast of a mix of western food and malaysian, but had to cut our feasting short in order to get our transfer back to the hotel...
Laura had bought a new battery for her camera just before leaving, but after charging that we discovered the battery wasnt the problem, the camera was... therefore did a rushed shopping trip at KL airport for a new camera, and i got myself a 1 gig memory card for $70.
another short flight which was all fine and landed in siem reap.
the airport was beautiful, the tourists in the visa queue annoying... came out of the airport to find someone waiting with my name on a big sign - so good. drive from airport to hotel was fascinating - the driving on the opposite side of the road initally freaked me out, but then my major issues became just the strage ordered caos of cars, buses, and mostly motorbikes and bikes... quite an amazing sight. the roads are lined with a mix of massive hotels and tiny hut like shop fronts - the tourist boom is obviously having a major impact, the buiding works are everywhere.
arrived at our 'green garden' guesthouse, which is lovely - people were very friendly, the room is nice, and spotless, the bathroom is even good - although we havent worked out the hotwater yet... our room is right next to a gorgeous pool just as an added bonus.
we decided to explore the town, found some markets, and made some purchases of a few scarves, tshirts etc. everything is of course obscenely cheap (tshirts $2US). after having explored the old market area we headed back to the hotel and had a swim then lazed around the pool for a while reading. we then decided to head out for more shopping on our way to dinner.
found an optomertrist 100m from our hotel, and laura ordered two pairs of glasses and a two pairs of prescription sunglasses which all came in at about $120US... unbelievable really.
wondered on towards dinner - found a very small child had attached itself to my had at one point, walked with me past several shops while i tried to fight off my urge to snatch it up and take it home, eventually we stopped and asked it where its parents were, at which point we got a heart breaking smile, a tug on my hand and a gesture back towards another shop... finally convinced it we werent going to go back although it was pretty hard to let it walk away!
Decided to go to 'pub street' in the heart of the tourist area for dinner, which while geared for tourists was not lacking in local charm. sat outside and went with the lovely waitresses reccommendation to try the 'fried amok' (chicken for laura, fish for me) with our jug of angkor beer. goes down as possibly the most delicious thing i've ever eaten - a sort of very mild curry that i wont attempt to describe beyond that, except to say AMAZING. laura's highlight for the evening - the restaurant played Wham's 'last christmas' which laura felt outranked the malaysian smiths fan as the best christmas present ever.
whilst sitting outside eating we were accosted by another heart wrenching small child wanting us to buy his postcards... we're blaming the beer, but we handed over our $1US after some chat.
All in all the evening felt alot like being in disney land - a kind of surreal other world feel... neither of us want to leave ever.
headed back to our hotel exhausted, although still relatively early by local time - unsuccessfully attempted to get on line, gave up and headed to bed althoughtthe christmas party at a local private school across the road from our hotel was still going strong, their overloud bass vibrated laura and i off to sleep quite rapidly.
today we will attempt to see the temples of angkor and possibly get ourselves a massage...
enough time wasted!
love to all and hope you all had a lovely christmas
flight from adelaide to KL was all good, individual tvs with endless tv and movies to choose from - how could that not be good!
arrived in KL and found our way to our transfer bus, along with some other weird australians... why are other tourists so annoying?? why are we the only non-annoying tourists? anyway, that was all ok, 50 min drive to our flash hotel... much confused about the time, but knew we were hungry so decided to try the hotel bar for food and drinks, even though by this time it was about 10pm local time and about 1am by our body clocks... the annoying australians came in handy for something as they gave us a rough idea of what the malaysian prices equated to Australian dollars... beer was as expensive as food and almost as expensive as a cocktail (equivalent to about $8) what more motiviation did we need to drink long island ice teas??
next morning got up early for our buffet breakfast, forgot it was christmas until the waiters all jumped at the opportunity to excessively merry christmas us. laura was much excited when the chef noticed her smiths tshirt, and not only knew the smiths but started quoting smiths lyrics at her...
had an interesting breakfast of a mix of western food and malaysian, but had to cut our feasting short in order to get our transfer back to the hotel...
Laura had bought a new battery for her camera just before leaving, but after charging that we discovered the battery wasnt the problem, the camera was... therefore did a rushed shopping trip at KL airport for a new camera, and i got myself a 1 gig memory card for $70.
another short flight which was all fine and landed in siem reap.
the airport was beautiful, the tourists in the visa queue annoying... came out of the airport to find someone waiting with my name on a big sign - so good. drive from airport to hotel was fascinating - the driving on the opposite side of the road initally freaked me out, but then my major issues became just the strage ordered caos of cars, buses, and mostly motorbikes and bikes... quite an amazing sight. the roads are lined with a mix of massive hotels and tiny hut like shop fronts - the tourist boom is obviously having a major impact, the buiding works are everywhere.
arrived at our 'green garden' guesthouse, which is lovely - people were very friendly, the room is nice, and spotless, the bathroom is even good - although we havent worked out the hotwater yet... our room is right next to a gorgeous pool just as an added bonus.
we decided to explore the town, found some markets, and made some purchases of a few scarves, tshirts etc. everything is of course obscenely cheap (tshirts $2US). after having explored the old market area we headed back to the hotel and had a swim then lazed around the pool for a while reading. we then decided to head out for more shopping on our way to dinner.
found an optomertrist 100m from our hotel, and laura ordered two pairs of glasses and a two pairs of prescription sunglasses which all came in at about $120US... unbelievable really.
wondered on towards dinner - found a very small child had attached itself to my had at one point, walked with me past several shops while i tried to fight off my urge to snatch it up and take it home, eventually we stopped and asked it where its parents were, at which point we got a heart breaking smile, a tug on my hand and a gesture back towards another shop... finally convinced it we werent going to go back although it was pretty hard to let it walk away!
Decided to go to 'pub street' in the heart of the tourist area for dinner, which while geared for tourists was not lacking in local charm. sat outside and went with the lovely waitresses reccommendation to try the 'fried amok' (chicken for laura, fish for me) with our jug of angkor beer. goes down as possibly the most delicious thing i've ever eaten - a sort of very mild curry that i wont attempt to describe beyond that, except to say AMAZING. laura's highlight for the evening - the restaurant played Wham's 'last christmas' which laura felt outranked the malaysian smiths fan as the best christmas present ever.
whilst sitting outside eating we were accosted by another heart wrenching small child wanting us to buy his postcards... we're blaming the beer, but we handed over our $1US after some chat.
All in all the evening felt alot like being in disney land - a kind of surreal other world feel... neither of us want to leave ever.
headed back to our hotel exhausted, although still relatively early by local time - unsuccessfully attempted to get on line, gave up and headed to bed althoughtthe christmas party at a local private school across the road from our hotel was still going strong, their overloud bass vibrated laura and i off to sleep quite rapidly.
today we will attempt to see the temples of angkor and possibly get ourselves a massage...
enough time wasted!
love to all and hope you all had a lovely christmas
Friday, December 22, 2006
the race is almost on
So laura is taking bets on whether i will kill her in the first three days. I'd just like to point out that a. i think that if i can get her out of the country without killing her I'll be so happy i should be able to make it through at least two weeks without murderous thoughts; and b. the minute we land and I step off a plane and realise i cant speak the native language i anticipate a rapid and absolute role reversal where laura will suddenly take on full responsiblity for me.
I'm having a werid anxiety reaction to this trip at the moment - i'm not consciously particularly worried about this trip, yet i'm having the physical responses of anxiety (stomach aches, not sleeping, tension). Oh well, i've decided that i will be fine once we're actually gone. its the waiting thats crazy.
now i'm going to go try and fill in a day which will be a challenge given i'm fully packed and have finished doing almost every possible thing i can in preparation for this trip.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
the beginning
so Laura and I are going away. we are going to cambodia for a bit and then to vietnam to ride bikes with a bunch of union people. our itinerary is as follows:
24th December - Adelaide to Kuala Lumpur - overnight in KL
25th December - KL to Siem Reap (arrive about midday local time)
26th December - Siem Reap
27th December - Siem Reap
28th December - Siem Reap
29th December - Siem Reap to Phnom Penh - probably by bus - about 5 hours (flexible, could go a day earlier or later)
30th December - Phnom Penh
31st December - Phnom Penh
1st January - Phnom Penh
2nd January - Phnom Penh to Hanoi - flight gets in about 6pm local time
3rd January - Hanoi
4th January - Hanoi to Halong Bay - this will be some kind of overnight tour (could change the day we do this, also could go two nights rather than one)
5th January - return to Hanoi
6th January - Hanoi
7th January - Hanoi, dinner with the Cycle group
8th January - Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, sights of Hanoi
9th January - Hai Duong (I think that’s a part of Hanoi) visiting APHEDA projects
10th January - Fly from Hanoi to Hue official cycling part of the trip begins
11th January - Hoi An
12th January - Quy Nhon via My Son
13th January - Pleiku
14th January - Buon Ma Thut
15th January - Nha Trang
16th January - Nha Trang
17th January - Dalat
18th January - Dalat
19th January - Dalat to Ho Chi Minh by bus
20th January - Ho Chi Minh, farewell dinner for group
21st January - Ho Chi Minh
22nd January - Ho Chi Minh to KL to Adelaide
23rd January - Arrive Adelaide 7.15am
As we are lazy we will probably use this blog rather than actually emailing our friends. The many ways to be impersonal through electronic media.
24th December - Adelaide to Kuala Lumpur - overnight in KL
25th December - KL to Siem Reap (arrive about midday local time)
26th December - Siem Reap
27th December - Siem Reap
28th December - Siem Reap
29th December - Siem Reap to Phnom Penh - probably by bus - about 5 hours (flexible, could go a day earlier or later)
30th December - Phnom Penh
31st December - Phnom Penh
1st January - Phnom Penh
2nd January - Phnom Penh to Hanoi - flight gets in about 6pm local time
3rd January - Hanoi
4th January - Hanoi to Halong Bay - this will be some kind of overnight tour (could change the day we do this, also could go two nights rather than one)
5th January - return to Hanoi
6th January - Hanoi
7th January - Hanoi, dinner with the Cycle group
8th January - Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, sights of Hanoi
9th January - Hai Duong (I think that’s a part of Hanoi) visiting APHEDA projects
10th January - Fly from Hanoi to Hue official cycling part of the trip begins
11th January - Hoi An
12th January - Quy Nhon via My Son
13th January - Pleiku
14th January - Buon Ma Thut
15th January - Nha Trang
16th January - Nha Trang
17th January - Dalat
18th January - Dalat
19th January - Dalat to Ho Chi Minh by bus
20th January - Ho Chi Minh, farewell dinner for group
21st January - Ho Chi Minh
22nd January - Ho Chi Minh to KL to Adelaide
23rd January - Arrive Adelaide 7.15am
As we are lazy we will probably use this blog rather than actually emailing our friends. The many ways to be impersonal through electronic media.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
