Here we are again! Let's talk about our adventures in Cambodia.
Before we crossed the border we had to go to the bank somewhere to re-pay the guest house, and it was so funny. Andrew stayed with the bags and I jumped on the back of a bike (no helmet here), with a crazy driver answering his mobile every 2 min!). Got to the bank and eventually got $ after filling at least 4 withdraw papers (got very confusing), all with one eye only as lost a conact lense on the back of the bike!!
We got the money and eventually crossed the border only to realise that something was wrong with our Laos visas and apparently we were never stamped in ... so we had to wait till everyone got their visa and eventually they stamped us out and in! Whatever we got our Cambodian 30 days visa so all was good.
I always laugh when we cross borders as there are always new fees ($1.00 for stamping, visa cost etc, makes me wonder if during their spare time the officials just come up with ideas to make money and get more $ from the tourists! Very lucrative little business hey!), the border crossing looks so unofficial! Little wooden shack in the middle of nowhere, only the uniforms make you realise you are at the border!.
Our 1st stop in Cambodia was Kratie, small city in the middle of nowhere (we like those, always end up there! Actually the lonely planet which I start to hate often makes such a thing about places that you go there only to realise it's crap and there is nothing there, I think Cambodia is the perfect example of how crap the lonely planet can be! I actually wonder if they go and visit the places and if so they may be actually drunk when they write the descriptors!! Must be!).
Cambodia reminds me a lot of India, the way the city are laid out, the dirt a bit, dust, horn, life happening all in the streets, small shops everywhere, kids running arund, begging and poverty here too.
Then it was off to Siem Reap for a few days. Great city better than Phnom Phen I think, well safer as you do not risk there to be run over every 2 min! Got a lovely guest house and set out to dicover the town in the heat! We were a bit cold in Laos, especially in the north and Phonsavan and I moaned about it, well Siem Reap changed all that, swety, sticky, smelly ... nice honey moon!
In Siem Reap we walked and walked some more, in main streets, markets, talked to some monks doing exams, went in back streets which I am fond off - like you see people's way of living there better - took lots of photos (I am so sorry for the people back home, I am on my 4th memory card, will not say how many GB!). Convinced Andrew to get his hair cut in a small dinky place for $2.00 (had enough of Liam Gallagher's look!), and got a bit worried when I stared to see his skull, still the end result is short (very short), and he looks gorgeous (like if he was in the army, or ordaining to be a monk!)
The next day we set out to visit Ankhor Watt temples, the best thing out of Cambodia, beautiful temples, built I think from 9th to 11th centuary, something the cambodian are very proud off, on the national flag and nearly every house has a photo of it. It was really good, went there for sun rise and visited all key temples, some really stange ones like Bayon, with heads everywhere, some nearly all destroyed with trees growing out of the stones, really cool - where apparently Tomb Rider was filmed. I spent all day pretending to be Angelina Jolie (Andrew kindly kept calling me Angelina pas jolie, he is charming!). It was a great day, hot and sticky and hard on my little legs - the people who built the temples must have been giant, as the steps on the temples are so tall! - but good, and amazing all the temples.
We really liked Siem Reap, although there was so much begging from kids, man victims of land mines, mum & babies .....
Loas was ment to be poorer, yet we did no see this poverty, Lao people are proud and keep themself to themself, more discreet and private. In Cambodia, there is a lot of poverty everywhere, lot's of begging, disability, it's everywhere around you and it breaks your heart.
After Siem Reap it was bus to Battabang another 'in the middle of nowhere' recommendation from the lonely planet! There we went with moto driver 'Buffalo' to small villages, killing caves (where the Khmer Rouge dumped bodies), bamboo train. All that on the back of the bike, again no helmet only for the drivers - Cambodian logic!
Then it was Kampong Chhang where we visited (better than with Buffalo, this time for the visit both me and Andrew on the back of the bike, nice and cosy), some Vietnamese floating villages. Really cool, just nice to see life in these amazing villages, very prepared for the wet season!! I loved smiling, looking at people, trying to talk to them, playing with kids, discovering the place, really had a good day there.
We took the bus again to Phnom Phen the capital. It was crazy there and so hot, bit of a nightmare to be honest. The heat, the people, cars, bikes everywhere, insane this city. You cannot walk on the pavement as they are taken over by shops, food stalls, bikes, markets etc (life really happens in the streets), and walking in the streets is also dangerous and you risk to get ran over by everything! We did not like this city much, got lost a lot, not that much to see, felt claustrophobic there!!.
Still we wondered around for couple of days, visited markets, river fromt, royal palace, prison S-21, or genocide museum and killing fields, and it was shocking, after that you spend a very quiet day wondering how crazy can one be to kill a 1/3 of your population ...... and then you look at people in the street wondering how the Khmer rouge affected their life, wondering if the one above 30 years old were victims or bourreau?
It leaves you with a stange feeling, sad, stunned and also feeling sorry for people I guess. Like in Laos the people from Cambodia have suffered so much through history (Indochina war, Pol Pot, ..) yet they stand strong today and try hard to move forward and make the best out of life, remarkable, and probably helped by the buddhist philosophy.
After the capital we bused to Kampot, really quite river town famous for it's pepper! Rented bikes and went to Kep (had yum crab) which used to be a strong anchor for the Khmer Rouge and in the French time like the cote d'Azur (you can still see some shell of what must have been like huge French style villas before the KR). Read a book called '1st they killed my fahther - hard but recommend it to everyone to understand what suffering the Khmer Rouge brought on it's people.
We wanted to go to Bakor hill station but the road was closed, so we could no. Instead we headed for Sihanouk ville where I am writting this. Great place, seaside resort which you would not exept to find in Cambodia. It's great here really chilled, nice beach, islands everywhere, sea water as hot as your bath, bars & retaurants. We celebrated Valentines day yesterday with lovely meal on the beach, and before that a massage (which Andrew hated! was so funy to see his face - they are not the softest masseuse here!) and a manicure and pedicure, it's so cheap would be a shame not to!
We are planning to stay here for a few days and then go to Thailand for 10 days or so before flying back on the 1st March to the UK. I cannot beleive that 4 months have gone, it went so fast, and I loved all of it really so much. We shall be staying in the UK for 10 days (wash our cclothes as Sarah says!) and then off again on the 14th March for another 1 1/2 months in South America. Must do the lotery in UK, and win some pennies to be able to go travelling some more as really do not want it to stop ever!
Will post some photos later on, here it takes too long and got to go and perfect my tan (and beer belly!)
Lots of love to all and speak soon.
The Roses xxx
Sunday, 15 February 2009
The Roses in Laos
Hello again, it has been a very long time since I wrote (may be one month?) Not sure. Anyhow, we have done and seen a lot in the last month and it has been great. We have discovered Laos and Cambodia - where am writing this0, 2 countries which we did not know much about and which have both surprised us in a very good way.
Starting with Laos. We crossed the Thai / Lao border on a little barge (we did not have enough money for it, but they were kind and let us pay less!), and made our way to Luang Nam Tha, small place, not much to do there, only beautiful scenery and absolutely lovely people (change from the Thai!). We decided to head further north to Muang Sing (even more the middle of nowhere! 2 streets and that's it!), where we booked our self for some trekking! Why I do not know as for one day we went up up up up and up. We thought the guide was having a laugh when he showed us where we were going (ridge of mountain), well he was not! I never done a walk so hard in my life and glad I did it (well there was no alternative really!!!). We camped at night in a village at the top of the mountain and it was great, playing with kids, trying to talk to the Akka people, drinking lao lao to forget the sore legs and having a very strange and a bit violent Akka massage (Andrew will never forget his hip nearly being dislocated!). We did the trek with some guys from Alaska and had a very good time!
We then headed to Nong Kiaw still north and met some nice French people (they are everywhere in Laos!), and enjoyed it there a lot too - again nothing to do but the scenery was amazing, river, mountains, lots of monks!!!
We then went to Luang Prabang on a boat a 5 1/2h trip with some of the best scenery ever, something out of lord of the ring as Andrew said.
Luang Prabang was fab, nice to be back in civilisation after few days in the mountains, no phone, e-mail sometimes. Luang Prabang is a beautiful city, lots of French architecture, wats, little markets (with so many beautiful things!!! which we cannot buy!), had a lovely massage there and visited / chilled there for a few days.
We woke up early there to see the monks doing alms and make merit, so we sat down and gave food to the monks in their bowls, was really nice indeed.
We then headed south east to Phonsavan where we visited the plain of jars (bit like stone henge stone jars everywhere and they don't know why / how). Liked it there and also there we realised (seeing old ammunitions and craters in the landscape) how much Laos suffered from the USA bombing - Laos is the most bombed country in the world, and it is a real problem still today as so may UXO that the land cannot be cultivated and not much other resources for the country placing it in one of the poorest in the wold).
We planned to cross to Vietnam from there but we did not plan on Tet (Chinese new year), which meant that buses were cancelled for 2 weeks and we could not go there .... so we went to Vientiane the capital to see if we could fly to Hanoi. Unfortunately it was too expensive so we gave up on Vietnam all together (visa ran out soon) and decided to concentrate on Laos, Cambodia, Thailand rather than rushing it all! We just will have to come back again sometime!
From Vientiane we headed with the overnight bus to Sin Phan Don or 4,000 islands, lots of big and small island on the mekong. It was amazing there, hardly developed, river surrounding, lots of little islands, so chilled, which we needed after nearly 1 month moving a lot, on the go!
We stayed there 4 days, chilling, tubing on the mekong (we laughed so much, was scared to end ou in the waterfalls!), visiting the islands on the bicycle (got puncher in middle of nowhere!), and having to get credit from guest house as no ATM on the island and we ran out of money! People are so nice in Laos, they gave us credit!
And that was Laos, a beautiful country, poor but I think rich at heart, with extremely friendly people - truly remarkable, they have suffered so much (being a colonie, bombs, Indochina war), yet the Lao people are the nicest I have met so far (yes nicer than Indian people) and lot's of kids everywhere!!
Next is Cambodia!!
The Roses!!
Starting with Laos. We crossed the Thai / Lao border on a little barge (we did not have enough money for it, but they were kind and let us pay less!), and made our way to Luang Nam Tha, small place, not much to do there, only beautiful scenery and absolutely lovely people (change from the Thai!). We decided to head further north to Muang Sing (even more the middle of nowhere! 2 streets and that's it!), where we booked our self for some trekking! Why I do not know as for one day we went up up up up and up. We thought the guide was having a laugh when he showed us where we were going (ridge of mountain), well he was not! I never done a walk so hard in my life and glad I did it (well there was no alternative really!!!). We camped at night in a village at the top of the mountain and it was great, playing with kids, trying to talk to the Akka people, drinking lao lao to forget the sore legs and having a very strange and a bit violent Akka massage (Andrew will never forget his hip nearly being dislocated!). We did the trek with some guys from Alaska and had a very good time!
We then headed to Nong Kiaw still north and met some nice French people (they are everywhere in Laos!), and enjoyed it there a lot too - again nothing to do but the scenery was amazing, river, mountains, lots of monks!!!
We then went to Luang Prabang on a boat a 5 1/2h trip with some of the best scenery ever, something out of lord of the ring as Andrew said.
Luang Prabang was fab, nice to be back in civilisation after few days in the mountains, no phone, e-mail sometimes. Luang Prabang is a beautiful city, lots of French architecture, wats, little markets (with so many beautiful things!!! which we cannot buy!), had a lovely massage there and visited / chilled there for a few days.
We woke up early there to see the monks doing alms and make merit, so we sat down and gave food to the monks in their bowls, was really nice indeed.
We then headed south east to Phonsavan where we visited the plain of jars (bit like stone henge stone jars everywhere and they don't know why / how). Liked it there and also there we realised (seeing old ammunitions and craters in the landscape) how much Laos suffered from the USA bombing - Laos is the most bombed country in the world, and it is a real problem still today as so may UXO that the land cannot be cultivated and not much other resources for the country placing it in one of the poorest in the wold).
We planned to cross to Vietnam from there but we did not plan on Tet (Chinese new year), which meant that buses were cancelled for 2 weeks and we could not go there .... so we went to Vientiane the capital to see if we could fly to Hanoi. Unfortunately it was too expensive so we gave up on Vietnam all together (visa ran out soon) and decided to concentrate on Laos, Cambodia, Thailand rather than rushing it all! We just will have to come back again sometime!
From Vientiane we headed with the overnight bus to Sin Phan Don or 4,000 islands, lots of big and small island on the mekong. It was amazing there, hardly developed, river surrounding, lots of little islands, so chilled, which we needed after nearly 1 month moving a lot, on the go!
We stayed there 4 days, chilling, tubing on the mekong (we laughed so much, was scared to end ou in the waterfalls!), visiting the islands on the bicycle (got puncher in middle of nowhere!), and having to get credit from guest house as no ATM on the island and we ran out of money! People are so nice in Laos, they gave us credit!
And that was Laos, a beautiful country, poor but I think rich at heart, with extremely friendly people - truly remarkable, they have suffered so much (being a colonie, bombs, Indochina war), yet the Lao people are the nicest I have met so far (yes nicer than Indian people) and lot's of kids everywhere!!
Next is Cambodia!!
The Roses!!
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