NZ is amazing!!!
Weather: dry, warm in the sun, cold in the shade, freezing strong winds, COLD! (compared to the tropical climate we have been used to for the last 8 months).
It has been quite refreshing to be in a different climate, with different scenery and culture. We've seen some magnificient scenery driving through the south island with beautiful hills, mountains, lakes, sheep, cows, fjords, cherry picking, and of-course it has been more fun with our new travelmates Anna and Jenn!
Highlights so far: we have our own car, kitchen - we can cook our own food!!! (yay for salads!), coffee, Queenstown, hiking, Jenn bungy jumped off the Kawarau Bridge (43m high)! And Milford Sound is spectacular!!!
Not so nice: NZ is expensive, nothing is free, oh and the sandflies are terrible in Milford Sound.
NZ does remind me of BC and Canada on the whole and it's made me want to explore BC even more. Today: pouring rain in Milford Sound, happy to be warm and dry in the lodge (glad we ditched the camping idea!), reading books, downloading masses of pictures onto the computer (I've taken over 500 pics in 3 days...), laundry and other housekeeping stuff so that we can keep enjoying our trip!
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
More pictures!!!
Here are the link to some more pictures:
Thailand:
https://picasaweb.google.com/natsufujita/ThailandNov2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCI-C47Htjb70sQE&feat=directlink
Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and Mauritius:
https://picasaweb.google.com/natsufujita/HongKongMacauSingaporeMauritius?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJjPsaPs0ZiKTw&feat=directlink
Thailand:
https://picasaweb.google.com/natsufujita/ThailandNov2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCI-C47Htjb70sQE&feat=directlink
Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and Mauritius:
https://picasaweb.google.com/natsufujita/HongKongMacauSingaporeMauritius?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJjPsaPs0ZiKTw&feat=directlink
It's been a while...
... since our last posting which was from Laos. Since then we have been on the move through Thailand, starting in Chiang Mai in the north, down to southern Thailand diving, then back to Vancouver for a blip and then back to Asia via Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore. From there we flew to Mauritius where we have spent the last two and a half weeks with family, eating, sleeping, and playing mahjong. Now tomorrow we fly back to Singapore for 36 hours, then fly from there to New Zealand where we will be for over a month!
The highlight in Thailand was our liveaboard diving trip to the Similan Islands which was awesome!!! Fantastic sea life, service, good company, and food! What more could you ask for? All we did for 3 days was dive, eat, sleep and dive! Other than that we enjoyed the beaches, but we had actually started to get a little tired of being on the move so much that we didn't do too much except lie around on the beach, or watch TV in our room... I got sucked into watching Law and Order and various other movies on TV that I couldn't get out of bed!
So, being back in Vancouver for 6 days was a nice break for us. We wished that we stayed a little longer to enjoy a nice bed, hot showers, free laundry, kitchen facilities, and of course friends! We had come back primarily for Gabe & Jaime's wedding... since we were their matchmakers! So we couldn't miss out!
Next, we got back on the plane for 14 hours to Hong Kong. Our hostel room that we slept in for 6 nights was tiny! Only 72 square feet! And the room was as wide as the length of the bed!!! Space is a real premium in Hong Kong, a busy and bustling city where things stay open forever, with a nice and efficient public transit system. We had a good time with Akshay and Sam (who live there), and Amy (who was visiting). We also went out for dim sum with Pat's MBA classmates, Bertha and Clare who are HK residents. Although we did a lot of waiting in lines in Hong Kong, we had a good time and did most of the tourist stuff, including hiking the Dragon's Back which had some excellent views and was not all that difficult.
Macau....the only good thing about Macau was the Portugese egg tarts which we ate plenty of. Other than that, nothing much, just casinos, and more casinos... nothing else. In Pat's opinion, it's not quite at Las Vegas's standard yet. Other than gambling, there's not much else to do.
Singapore was another clean and efficient city where we met with Sonia, Shalom, and Jill. Meeting friends and eating again was the highlight in Singapore. Since it rained a lot we didn't go to the zoo or Sentosa Island, and oh, you can shop till you drop there! If you have the money that is!
Mauritius: Beautiful beaches, good food, sleep, sunburn, family dinners, watching English soccer on TV, some more diving (for Pat at least... I had trouble with clogged sinuses, so couldn't equalize going down), and hours of playing mahjong (and in my case losing every time) sums up our time here.
I am now ready for the next portion of our trip, and need to go on a diet! Off to New Zealand we go!
The highlight in Thailand was our liveaboard diving trip to the Similan Islands which was awesome!!! Fantastic sea life, service, good company, and food! What more could you ask for? All we did for 3 days was dive, eat, sleep and dive! Other than that we enjoyed the beaches, but we had actually started to get a little tired of being on the move so much that we didn't do too much except lie around on the beach, or watch TV in our room... I got sucked into watching Law and Order and various other movies on TV that I couldn't get out of bed!
So, being back in Vancouver for 6 days was a nice break for us. We wished that we stayed a little longer to enjoy a nice bed, hot showers, free laundry, kitchen facilities, and of course friends! We had come back primarily for Gabe & Jaime's wedding... since we were their matchmakers! So we couldn't miss out!
Next, we got back on the plane for 14 hours to Hong Kong. Our hostel room that we slept in for 6 nights was tiny! Only 72 square feet! And the room was as wide as the length of the bed!!! Space is a real premium in Hong Kong, a busy and bustling city where things stay open forever, with a nice and efficient public transit system. We had a good time with Akshay and Sam (who live there), and Amy (who was visiting). We also went out for dim sum with Pat's MBA classmates, Bertha and Clare who are HK residents. Although we did a lot of waiting in lines in Hong Kong, we had a good time and did most of the tourist stuff, including hiking the Dragon's Back which had some excellent views and was not all that difficult.
Macau....the only good thing about Macau was the Portugese egg tarts which we ate plenty of. Other than that, nothing much, just casinos, and more casinos... nothing else. In Pat's opinion, it's not quite at Las Vegas's standard yet. Other than gambling, there's not much else to do.
Singapore was another clean and efficient city where we met with Sonia, Shalom, and Jill. Meeting friends and eating again was the highlight in Singapore. Since it rained a lot we didn't go to the zoo or Sentosa Island, and oh, you can shop till you drop there! If you have the money that is!
Mauritius: Beautiful beaches, good food, sleep, sunburn, family dinners, watching English soccer on TV, some more diving (for Pat at least... I had trouble with clogged sinuses, so couldn't equalize going down), and hours of playing mahjong (and in my case losing every time) sums up our time here.
I am now ready for the next portion of our trip, and need to go on a diet! Off to New Zealand we go!
Monday, November 14, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Laos
After the hectic pace of Phnom Penh, Ho Chi Minh, and Hanoi... Vientiane was a lovely change of pace!!! Not only were the people of this small capital city friendly and not pushy, you could actually cross the road without fear of death!!! The city itself is very quiet and laid back with a small number of things to do... but is still quite pretty with the Mekong River, and Thailand on the other side, on its southern border. It was also a nice change because the food in Vientiane was better than anywhere in Vietnam we thought! It must have been the Chinese dumpling restaurant that we couldn't walk by on the corner near our hotel! But, the BBQ street-side restaurants were also good and relatively inexpensive.
After Vientiane, we took a four hour minivan ride up to Vang Vieng... Our first thought was that we should have stayed in Vientiane another day or two! Vang Vieng, though small and quiet (in the daytime), is a haven for young'ns looking for a party. The biggest attraction is tubing down the Nam Khan River past an endless row of riverside bars attracting you in with cheap booze and loud music. We didn't see the party happen first hand, as we chose to tube down the river in the morning when everybody was asleep, but we could see how it could be a big party and become dangerous as some of the videos we saw showed. Many of these bars have man-made slides or rope swings that drop you into the shallow and brown Nam Khan River... ie. you don't see the bottom. The YouTube videos we took a look at before doing the tubing showed scores of people getting injured, including one person having his head cavity stuffed with something, probably to ensure it doesn't implode or bleed out profusely during transport. The scenes we saw while eating in the village in the evenings also showed some of the carnage, as not a hour went by without us seeing someone with a bandaged leg, arm, or limp in their step! The scenery in Vang Vieng, though, is absolutely fantastic... karsts jutting out all around the river... making it a beautiful and peaceful tubing ride in the morning!
After a couple days in Vang Vieng, we took the VIP bus to Luang Prabang. VIP indeed. As we rolled up to the bus in our tuktuk, I asked myself, why are the windows open? And why does the bus look like it's 20 years old with its taillights broken. Well, this 205km journey through the absolutely fantastic scenery of Kasi province, turned into a 7-hour open-air journey smelling of engine fumes! The scenery did make the time pass by more quickly though! If you are ever in Laos, do the journey southward but in a new minivan! And sit on the right!
We had come to Luang Prabang a couple days early, as we decided that we didn't want to do two 7-hour bus journeys to Phonsavan just to see the Plain of Jars (fields of large urns that are possibly littered with unexploded ordnance (AKA bombs leftover from the Vietnam War))...
Luang Prabang is a lovely city full of temples. You can see most of these temples in a day, actually you can see almost everything the city has to offer in 2-3 days. Since we had 5, we took it easy and only did a bit each day. Even then, we didn't go to the Pak Ou Caves where thousands of old Buddha statues are stored. After a while, once you've seen one buddha/temple in Southeast Asia, you've seen them all! Luang Prabang does host a magnificient waterfall though... about 27kms to the west... Kuang Xi Waterfall. It's a 70m terraced waterfall where you can swim in some of the ponds that form under the falls... very refreshing as the water was about 18 degrees Celcius in my opinion. Just like a pool in Vancouver in the summer. The food in Luang Prabang was also good, but not as good as Vientiane. We do miss our crepe vendor though, who we went back to every night!!! Crepe with peanut butter and chocolate... yum! And the French type too!
After Vientiane, we took a four hour minivan ride up to Vang Vieng... Our first thought was that we should have stayed in Vientiane another day or two! Vang Vieng, though small and quiet (in the daytime), is a haven for young'ns looking for a party. The biggest attraction is tubing down the Nam Khan River past an endless row of riverside bars attracting you in with cheap booze and loud music. We didn't see the party happen first hand, as we chose to tube down the river in the morning when everybody was asleep, but we could see how it could be a big party and become dangerous as some of the videos we saw showed. Many of these bars have man-made slides or rope swings that drop you into the shallow and brown Nam Khan River... ie. you don't see the bottom. The YouTube videos we took a look at before doing the tubing showed scores of people getting injured, including one person having his head cavity stuffed with something, probably to ensure it doesn't implode or bleed out profusely during transport. The scenes we saw while eating in the village in the evenings also showed some of the carnage, as not a hour went by without us seeing someone with a bandaged leg, arm, or limp in their step! The scenery in Vang Vieng, though, is absolutely fantastic... karsts jutting out all around the river... making it a beautiful and peaceful tubing ride in the morning!
After a couple days in Vang Vieng, we took the VIP bus to Luang Prabang. VIP indeed. As we rolled up to the bus in our tuktuk, I asked myself, why are the windows open? And why does the bus look like it's 20 years old with its taillights broken. Well, this 205km journey through the absolutely fantastic scenery of Kasi province, turned into a 7-hour open-air journey smelling of engine fumes! The scenery did make the time pass by more quickly though! If you are ever in Laos, do the journey southward but in a new minivan! And sit on the right!
We had come to Luang Prabang a couple days early, as we decided that we didn't want to do two 7-hour bus journeys to Phonsavan just to see the Plain of Jars (fields of large urns that are possibly littered with unexploded ordnance (AKA bombs leftover from the Vietnam War))...
Luang Prabang is a lovely city full of temples. You can see most of these temples in a day, actually you can see almost everything the city has to offer in 2-3 days. Since we had 5, we took it easy and only did a bit each day. Even then, we didn't go to the Pak Ou Caves where thousands of old Buddha statues are stored. After a while, once you've seen one buddha/temple in Southeast Asia, you've seen them all! Luang Prabang does host a magnificient waterfall though... about 27kms to the west... Kuang Xi Waterfall. It's a 70m terraced waterfall where you can swim in some of the ponds that form under the falls... very refreshing as the water was about 18 degrees Celcius in my opinion. Just like a pool in Vancouver in the summer. The food in Luang Prabang was also good, but not as good as Vientiane. We do miss our crepe vendor though, who we went back to every night!!! Crepe with peanut butter and chocolate... yum! And the French type too!
Friday, October 28, 2011
Ha Long Bay
Was beautiful!
We went with a company called "Indochina Junks" on their Dragon Pearl III. There were, all in all, 17 of us comprised of 7 Australians, a family of 6 from Norway, and 4 Vancouverites!!! All (except the 4-year old) were over the age of 27 which was one of the most civilized and good company we've had in a long time. The rooms were nice and clean with a good shower, but a non-functioning drain... ah it's Asia, nothing is going to be perfect!
I guess at this time of the year, Ha Long Bay is hazy, which makes it all the more mysterious and romantic. We saw the giant rock like mountains looming in the horizon in the big calm bay with blue/green water.
We spent the 2 days kayaking, swimming (there are some lovely soft white sand beaches... and we were the only ones there!), relaxing, and eating. The meals were quite good... they served a variety of stuff, but a lot of seafood (prawns) in courses, so the meal times lasted for a couple hours at a time, talking to each other, etc. It was a nice break from the heat and hustle & bustle of Hanoi. If you ever decide to visit Ha Long Bay, spend 2 nights and splurge a little, you won't regret it.
We also went to a floating fishing village in the bay... our guide said that approximately 3,000-5,000 people live like this in Ha Long Bay. They anchor their homes (which are tied to plastic barrels) to the rocks and they only go in to the city to buy fresh water and to sell their fish. One village has a motor boat to transport water/rice/vegetables and sick people to and from the city. People who live in these floating villages are largely extended families with blood ties, so when the young people get married, they have to find their partner on land or another village. There are even schools in these villages where the government sends teachers to teach. BTW, these people are not ethnic minorities, they are Vietnamese. There is a midwife present in each of these villages as well, it takes about 45 minutes on the motorboat to get to a hospital. Birth control is also an issue in these communities as access to everything is an issue. The Vietnamese government is trying for these villages to amalgamate so that it is easier to provide services, and eventually (I am assuming) have them come back on land? I couldn't imagine living on water. The kids learn to swim and row boats at an very early age... we saw a baby/toddler rowing his mini styrofoam raft in the village. Obviously these people's primary livelihood is fishing, Which they trade for water, rice and vegetables. Everything is washed in salt water...clothes, body, food and then rinsed using freshwater sparingly. Imagine wearing salty clothes all the time...
That was a nice end to our Vietnam portion of this trip, and next we're off to Laos on another culinary journey! Excited!
I hope Ha Long Bay stays beautiful.
More pictures have been posted in the Vietnam album, so view it at your leisure!
We went with a company called "Indochina Junks" on their Dragon Pearl III. There were, all in all, 17 of us comprised of 7 Australians, a family of 6 from Norway, and 4 Vancouverites!!! All (except the 4-year old) were over the age of 27 which was one of the most civilized and good company we've had in a long time. The rooms were nice and clean with a good shower, but a non-functioning drain... ah it's Asia, nothing is going to be perfect!
I guess at this time of the year, Ha Long Bay is hazy, which makes it all the more mysterious and romantic. We saw the giant rock like mountains looming in the horizon in the big calm bay with blue/green water.
We spent the 2 days kayaking, swimming (there are some lovely soft white sand beaches... and we were the only ones there!), relaxing, and eating. The meals were quite good... they served a variety of stuff, but a lot of seafood (prawns) in courses, so the meal times lasted for a couple hours at a time, talking to each other, etc. It was a nice break from the heat and hustle & bustle of Hanoi. If you ever decide to visit Ha Long Bay, spend 2 nights and splurge a little, you won't regret it.
We also went to a floating fishing village in the bay... our guide said that approximately 3,000-5,000 people live like this in Ha Long Bay. They anchor their homes (which are tied to plastic barrels) to the rocks and they only go in to the city to buy fresh water and to sell their fish. One village has a motor boat to transport water/rice/vegetables and sick people to and from the city. People who live in these floating villages are largely extended families with blood ties, so when the young people get married, they have to find their partner on land or another village. There are even schools in these villages where the government sends teachers to teach. BTW, these people are not ethnic minorities, they are Vietnamese. There is a midwife present in each of these villages as well, it takes about 45 minutes on the motorboat to get to a hospital. Birth control is also an issue in these communities as access to everything is an issue. The Vietnamese government is trying for these villages to amalgamate so that it is easier to provide services, and eventually (I am assuming) have them come back on land? I couldn't imagine living on water. The kids learn to swim and row boats at an very early age... we saw a baby/toddler rowing his mini styrofoam raft in the village. Obviously these people's primary livelihood is fishing, Which they trade for water, rice and vegetables. Everything is washed in salt water...clothes, body, food and then rinsed using freshwater sparingly. Imagine wearing salty clothes all the time...
That was a nice end to our Vietnam portion of this trip, and next we're off to Laos on another culinary journey! Excited!
I hope Ha Long Bay stays beautiful.
More pictures have been posted in the Vietnam album, so view it at your leisure!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Sa Pa
What a beautiful and quiet place! Because it is in the mountains, it was quite a bit cooler than Hanoi which was a nice break from the heat. We took an overnight train from Hanoi to the city of Lao Cai which borders China. The train was a little nicer than the other trains that we have taken in Vietnam with wood panels and nicer bedding and all! But the same iffy toilets, probably cockroaches (although I didn't see one on that train), and very jerky (lack of suspension). Ah well, we lasted 5 train rides in Vietnam, I am glad I have no more but I guess it was all part of the experience!
Sapa itself is a quiet little mountain town... Full of Canadian tourists!!! Up to this point we had met few, if any, Canadians in Vietnam. In Sapa, they were everywhere! One evening, every patron in our restaurant was from Canada! It must be the mountains and cool climate that attracts them.
Sapa is know for it's trekking to minority villages and beautiful mountain landscapes full of terraced rice fields. You can't miss either while on the way through the mountains and on arrival in Sapa... The Hmong village women and girls swarm you as soon as you get off the bus...
"Where are you from?"
"What's your name?"
"How old are you?"
"BUY SOMETHING?!"
At first, it's interesting, but soon gets very tiring as EVERY SINGLE one of them asks you the same thing every step you take. It got to the point that Pat simply reversed each question towards them without answering them or said that he was from Africa... Which isn't altogether untrue as his family has roots in Mauritius. But even this didn't phase them sometimes. On our 2nd day of hiking, one kind older villager followed me from village to village telling me about her village and family. But when we stopped for lunch, the sales pitch came out and she was pushy and harassing until we finally decided to buy a pouch from her... Partly because we wanted it and partly because we were getting thoroughly irritated and just wanted her to go away.
Otherwise, the hikes were interesting and the scenery made it worthwhile. It was nice to get some exercise as well! Everybody should make it to Sapa if they visit Vietnam. The terraced rice fields are a beautiful sight... They reminded me of hills just outside Kathmandu! We also saw some waterfalls and tasted some good BBQ skewers along the way!
In all we stayed 4-days in Sapa and enjoyed our time there!
Sapa itself is a quiet little mountain town... Full of Canadian tourists!!! Up to this point we had met few, if any, Canadians in Vietnam. In Sapa, they were everywhere! One evening, every patron in our restaurant was from Canada! It must be the mountains and cool climate that attracts them.
Sapa is know for it's trekking to minority villages and beautiful mountain landscapes full of terraced rice fields. You can't miss either while on the way through the mountains and on arrival in Sapa... The Hmong village women and girls swarm you as soon as you get off the bus...
"Where are you from?"
"What's your name?"
"How old are you?"
"BUY SOMETHING?!"
At first, it's interesting, but soon gets very tiring as EVERY SINGLE one of them asks you the same thing every step you take. It got to the point that Pat simply reversed each question towards them without answering them or said that he was from Africa... Which isn't altogether untrue as his family has roots in Mauritius. But even this didn't phase them sometimes. On our 2nd day of hiking, one kind older villager followed me from village to village telling me about her village and family. But when we stopped for lunch, the sales pitch came out and she was pushy and harassing until we finally decided to buy a pouch from her... Partly because we wanted it and partly because we were getting thoroughly irritated and just wanted her to go away.
Otherwise, the hikes were interesting and the scenery made it worthwhile. It was nice to get some exercise as well! Everybody should make it to Sapa if they visit Vietnam. The terraced rice fields are a beautiful sight... They reminded me of hills just outside Kathmandu! We also saw some waterfalls and tasted some good BBQ skewers along the way!
In all we stayed 4-days in Sapa and enjoyed our time there!
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Hoi An
The cutest old Vietnamese town by far, it's a very old merchant town where Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese merchants lived due to Hoi An being a port, centre of spice trading, etc. Some of the buildings were over 100-years old. The old buildings have now been turned into cafes, souvenir shops, and tailors. If you like to shop this is the place, with leather shoes and clothes that can be made-to-order at reasonable prices (compared to the west).
We visited the old merchant houses and museums... both needed some dusting, and the Chinese community houses which I liked. Other than that, the charm of the town was just to walk around, enjoy the atmosphere, and take a break in the cafes with lovely cakes and coffee!
Fortunately we had good weather for the full moon lantern festival where they turn off all the electrical lights in the old town, and all you can see are the beautiful Hoi An lamps. For the full moon festival, the people light small paper lanterns and float them down the river. It is said that you float your wish down the river and hope that the candle stays lit for your wish to come true. If the candle blows out, then your wish will not come true and you have to try again for the next full moon. :) I just tried to take photos using the tripod... not too successful, so we didn't float a lamp down the river, but it was beautiful.
The highlight of Hoi An and Vietnam so far for me was the cooking class. It was the best meal ever! We booked with Gioan cooking class and opted for some market experience as well. Vina took us around the market and showed us different herbs and vegetables (that you don't see at home). Did you know there is a herb/leaf that smells and tastes like fish?!!!! I didn't... Not my favourite! And no wonder I haven't been enjoying the fresh spring rolls very much here because I think they put these fishy leaves in... or the mint and some other herb combination makes it taste fishy. We also saw big white melon like eggplant, and learned how to choose good pineapple and lemongrass. Vina also made us carry all her groceries... "Lovely"! Next was the cooking, our cooking instructor was Hanh, who taught us how to cook lemongrass chili shrimp, Hoi An fried rice, and claypot aubergine. It was delicious!!! I hope I (or Pat) can replicate it back in Vancouver...
The other days in Hoi An were spent by the pool, spa, and in our room as it rained a good chunk of time. If I were just vacationing in Vietnam, I think I would've bought a trunkful of clothes, shoes, and other trinkets... but because our backpacks are already so heavy, we didn't buy anything. Although I wanted a pair of earrings but it was too thick for my ears. The lady tried to force them through and now they're a little infected... aside from that, we really haven't been that sick (knock on wood). Pat's had stomach problems here and there (not that he's complained much though... I think he has worms since he says it's pretty normal... not that you wanted to know Pat's bowel habits!), but I've been fine. We are eating too well that we've noticed a little more stomach in a picture of us lately (Pat is in denial). Hmmm... maybe we should cut down on our cakes, pastries, and Vietnamese coffee???!!!
We've added some photos to the Vietnam folder... see the link in the post below.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
More photos!!!
Cambodia:
https://picasaweb.google.com/natsufujita/CambodiaJuneSeptember2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKW72s-cppDraw&feat=directlink
Vietnam:
https://picasaweb.google.com/natsufujita/VietnamSeptemberOctober2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJHf_fXs4d-TogE&feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/natsufujita/CambodiaJuneSeptember2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKW72s-cppDraw&feat=directlink
Vietnam:
https://picasaweb.google.com/natsufujita/VietnamSeptemberOctober2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJHf_fXs4d-TogE&feat=directlink
Diving... finally!!!
Nha Trang... a nice little beach city that's developing rapidly... and in a good way! In 10-20 years, it should be a lot like Hawaii! We spent 4-days here, 2 of them lying on a couple loungers by the beach reading, sipping cocktails, and swimming... not a bad time! We hope to do much more of this throughout the trip!!!
This is also where we did our first scuba diving excursions of the trip! While not as beautiful as what I saw on my first-ever dive at Ko Phi Phi in Thailand, it was fairly good! The visibility was not the best as a storm had passed through the night before and churned up the sea floor a bit, but it was still 6-10 metres. It was better than the last day we were in Nha Trang, as a further storm had turned the clear greenish blue waters at the beach to murky brown! We swam around Hon Mun Island at dive sites with names like Madonna Rock, Sea Horse 2, Moray Beach, and Mammahanh. All we're nice, and we got to see things like Moray Eels, Pipefish, Trumpetfish, Scorpion Fish, schools of shrimp, small crabs, playful Clownfish and their anemones and Pufferfish!!! We even saw a Mantis Shrimp that looked like a clawless yummy lobster! We haven't been eating much seafood here... maybe that should change soon!
We're now in Hue, the former Imperial capital of Vietnam during the Nguyen era. It's a nice little town, with the Perfume River running through it and out to the South China Sea. Here you can walk around the Old Imperial City inside the Citadel. This was the former place of government under Vietnam's former emperors. We took a scooter out to the countryside yesterday to check-out some of the mausoleums of these former emperors. It's funny, but the grandest ones, with the exception of Minh Mang, are those of some of Vietnam's weakest emperors. The first we saw was that of Emperor Khai Dinh, who was more of a puppet of the French regime in the early 20th Century... he was chosen by the French to be Emperor as his previous two were too nationalistic and opposed the French. He died 9-years after being in power, said to be a drug addict and in bad health. The last one we visited was that of Emperor Tu Duc, who was known more for his poetry and time spent at his palace writing, rather than as a leader... and he was in power for 35-years. The only capable Emperor who had a mausoleum worth visiting was Minh Mang, who was said to be capable, but ruled in an authoritarian manner... though this isn't always a bad thing, as some countries these days sure could use government like that!
Today, we've spent most of the day in a little restaurant called La Carambole... writing these latest blog postings, reading news on our iPhones, and planning our trip to New Zealand in January! YAY for New Zealand! We can't wait! After this we'll probably hop on a cyclo for the sake of riding a cyclo around town! Tomorrow we're backtracking a bit and going to Hoi An for their Full Moon Eve festival.
Will be posting pics soon, probably later today... stay tuned!!!
This is also where we did our first scuba diving excursions of the trip! While not as beautiful as what I saw on my first-ever dive at Ko Phi Phi in Thailand, it was fairly good! The visibility was not the best as a storm had passed through the night before and churned up the sea floor a bit, but it was still 6-10 metres. It was better than the last day we were in Nha Trang, as a further storm had turned the clear greenish blue waters at the beach to murky brown! We swam around Hon Mun Island at dive sites with names like Madonna Rock, Sea Horse 2, Moray Beach, and Mammahanh. All we're nice, and we got to see things like Moray Eels, Pipefish, Trumpetfish, Scorpion Fish, schools of shrimp, small crabs, playful Clownfish and their anemones and Pufferfish!!! We even saw a Mantis Shrimp that looked like a clawless yummy lobster! We haven't been eating much seafood here... maybe that should change soon!
We're now in Hue, the former Imperial capital of Vietnam during the Nguyen era. It's a nice little town, with the Perfume River running through it and out to the South China Sea. Here you can walk around the Old Imperial City inside the Citadel. This was the former place of government under Vietnam's former emperors. We took a scooter out to the countryside yesterday to check-out some of the mausoleums of these former emperors. It's funny, but the grandest ones, with the exception of Minh Mang, are those of some of Vietnam's weakest emperors. The first we saw was that of Emperor Khai Dinh, who was more of a puppet of the French regime in the early 20th Century... he was chosen by the French to be Emperor as his previous two were too nationalistic and opposed the French. He died 9-years after being in power, said to be a drug addict and in bad health. The last one we visited was that of Emperor Tu Duc, who was known more for his poetry and time spent at his palace writing, rather than as a leader... and he was in power for 35-years. The only capable Emperor who had a mausoleum worth visiting was Minh Mang, who was said to be capable, but ruled in an authoritarian manner... though this isn't always a bad thing, as some countries these days sure could use government like that!
Today, we've spent most of the day in a little restaurant called La Carambole... writing these latest blog postings, reading news on our iPhones, and planning our trip to New Zealand in January! YAY for New Zealand! We can't wait! After this we'll probably hop on a cyclo for the sake of riding a cyclo around town! Tomorrow we're backtracking a bit and going to Hoi An for their Full Moon Eve festival.
Will be posting pics soon, probably later today... stay tuned!!!
Friday, October 7, 2011
Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City?
Although it has been 30 years or so since Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City, a lot of people still call it Saigon.
Ho Chi Minh City was a big and bustling city, with tall modern buildings, far more than Phnom Penh. There were billions of motorbikes on the roads and everyone wore helmets(!), except people on bicycles and children (makes no sense...). Anyways... We stayed in a nice clean guesthouse down a quiet alley next to a yummy Indian restaurant! (I must say we are enjoying the Indian food on this trip! Who knew there would be Indian restaurants run by Indian/Pakistani people in Cambodia and Vietnam?). If you ever visit HCMC we recommend Thang Thuong guesthouse.
I liked Saigon, it was fresh after Phnom Penh and I liked visiting the war museums. I didn't know much about the Vietnam War (or American War as per Vietnam), so it was interesting to learn about it from the Vietnamese perspective. The War Remnants Museum had an exhibition of pictures taken of the war in Vietnam by the 134 international journalists who died in this war. There was a whole section about Agent Orange that was used during this time, which still affects the Vietnamese people today. It also had a section about the prisoner of war camps on Phu Quoc Island (how they were tortured and treated by the Americans)... it was a very real and sad place (also very one sided).
We also went on a full day tour to Cao Dai Temple which is a sect/cult that is very unique in that it worships Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hindhuism. We visited during their mass at noon with all the other tourists, another awkward moment. The Cu Chi Tunnels, which was the afternoon portion of the tour, were pretty awesome. It was a web of tunnels used by the Viet Congs during the war to hide from the American soldiers. It was like an underground village with a hospital bunker, dining bunker, meeting room bunker, and ammunition bunker, which were all connected by small dark (very small... Natsu would not fit) tunnels. We crawled 40 meters through the tunnels and it wasn't easy. Again its amazing to see what people survived through...
To change the subject, Vietnamese coffee is much stronger than Cambodian coffee that I found condensed milk necessary to drink the coffee at first (although I am used to it now). We've eaten Pho, Banh Mi (baguette sandwiches), banh cuon (Google it, it's good!), and Vietnamese pancakes! We also ate fresh spring rolls that tasted terribly fishy that we haven't tried it again since... International food is all around that we haven't really missed anything either... though Pat is starting to want Shepherd's Pie!
We also found that nothing in Vietnam is free...a guy selling drinks was balancing two coolers on his shoulder with a flat piece of bamboo and the coolers hanging on either side gave it to Pat to carry for a picture (we didn't ask BTW), after that he forced us to buy coconuts for 40,000VND....Oh and you need to give taxi drivers exact change... some don't give you back any change either... I had a Vietnamese lady scream at me for bargaining for a cut-up mango which she charged 50,000VND (US$ 2.50)... Overall, I find Cambodian people more friendly and pleasant to deal with, and Vietnamese people more "aggressive" but maybe that's because we are doing the tourist thing here so we end up being around locals who are in your face to get your business all the time.
Ho Chi Minh City was a big and bustling city, with tall modern buildings, far more than Phnom Penh. There were billions of motorbikes on the roads and everyone wore helmets(!), except people on bicycles and children (makes no sense...). Anyways... We stayed in a nice clean guesthouse down a quiet alley next to a yummy Indian restaurant! (I must say we are enjoying the Indian food on this trip! Who knew there would be Indian restaurants run by Indian/Pakistani people in Cambodia and Vietnam?). If you ever visit HCMC we recommend Thang Thuong guesthouse.
I liked Saigon, it was fresh after Phnom Penh and I liked visiting the war museums. I didn't know much about the Vietnam War (or American War as per Vietnam), so it was interesting to learn about it from the Vietnamese perspective. The War Remnants Museum had an exhibition of pictures taken of the war in Vietnam by the 134 international journalists who died in this war. There was a whole section about Agent Orange that was used during this time, which still affects the Vietnamese people today. It also had a section about the prisoner of war camps on Phu Quoc Island (how they were tortured and treated by the Americans)... it was a very real and sad place (also very one sided).
We also went on a full day tour to Cao Dai Temple which is a sect/cult that is very unique in that it worships Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hindhuism. We visited during their mass at noon with all the other tourists, another awkward moment. The Cu Chi Tunnels, which was the afternoon portion of the tour, were pretty awesome. It was a web of tunnels used by the Viet Congs during the war to hide from the American soldiers. It was like an underground village with a hospital bunker, dining bunker, meeting room bunker, and ammunition bunker, which were all connected by small dark (very small... Natsu would not fit) tunnels. We crawled 40 meters through the tunnels and it wasn't easy. Again its amazing to see what people survived through...
To change the subject, Vietnamese coffee is much stronger than Cambodian coffee that I found condensed milk necessary to drink the coffee at first (although I am used to it now). We've eaten Pho, Banh Mi (baguette sandwiches), banh cuon (Google it, it's good!), and Vietnamese pancakes! We also ate fresh spring rolls that tasted terribly fishy that we haven't tried it again since... International food is all around that we haven't really missed anything either... though Pat is starting to want Shepherd's Pie!
We also found that nothing in Vietnam is free...a guy selling drinks was balancing two coolers on his shoulder with a flat piece of bamboo and the coolers hanging on either side gave it to Pat to carry for a picture (we didn't ask BTW), after that he forced us to buy coconuts for 40,000VND....Oh and you need to give taxi drivers exact change... some don't give you back any change either... I had a Vietnamese lady scream at me for bargaining for a cut-up mango which she charged 50,000VND (US$ 2.50)... Overall, I find Cambodian people more friendly and pleasant to deal with, and Vietnamese people more "aggressive" but maybe that's because we are doing the tourist thing here so we end up being around locals who are in your face to get your business all the time.
It's hard to believe...
... that it has now been 2 weeks since we have left Phnom Penh! We have done a lot of sightseeing and different activities since then, that Cambodia seems a lifetime ago...
On the day that we left Phnom Penh, we were meant to go on a boat down the Mekong River to Vietnam through Chau Doc on a tour with one night at a "floating" hotel...well, the boat cruise never happened on the Cambodian side since the boat driver "went home to the province" because of the Phcum Ben holidays in Cambodia.
We weren't told of this until we asked....so we went to the border on a minivan and crossed into Vietnam walking with our big and heavy packs on our backs for about 10 minutes to the ferry terminal. From there we took a boat to our "floating" hotel in Chau Doc, where our first meal in Vietnam was instant noodles (I heart tours in Asia...). The rest of the day was free to roam around but we didn't really find the interesting spots as our guidebook didn't have a map and neither did the tour guide so we went back to our hotel and read for the rest of the evening in their restaurant by the river.
The next day, we started early on our tour of Chau Doc, apparently it is a very large and famous city in the Mekong River Delta region because there are many fish farms in this area that export their fish (such as Basa) to western countries... now I know where our fish comes from (not really sure I wanted to know this...). This makes Chau Doc fish farmers very rich, as our guide told us these fish farmers make billions of Dongs per year (1 billion Dong is equivalent to US$50,000) depending on their farm size. These fish farmers live in a houseboat with a square opening in their floor where they feed the fish. When our guide poured the fish food in the water all the fish jumped and splashed around like crazy!!!! The food they are given are homemade fish food composed of water lily leaves, rice, and leftover meat/fish. We also visited a Champa village which is a small Muslim ethnic minority village in the Mekong. There was a small mosque and the children were learning Arabic. I don't know if I enjoy "visiting" ethnic minority villages with a tour group, something doesn't sit right with me about it. After that, we started making our way to Saigon by bus, visiting Sam Mountain en route where there is a nice temple in the mountain where you can see Cambodia from. Finally, 8-hours later we arrived in Saigon, a big bustling city with tall buildings and modern facilities.
Our first impression of Vietnam after two-days of driving through and touring around the Mekong was that it was more developed and wealthier than Cambodia. The roads were bigger with 2 lane highways, most of the buildings and homes were made of concrete and not bamboo/wooden structures like Cambodia. We didn't see any shacks or poverty comparable to that of Cambodia (from the bus window-don't know how much I can generalize, but Cambodia was much poorer from the bus window). There were also many graves in the middle of the rice fields as well. We saw many school children along the way in their uniforms and some older girls were wearing long white traditional Vietnamese dresses riding on bicycles (the typical Vietnam image...). Two very different war-torn countries...
On the day that we left Phnom Penh, we were meant to go on a boat down the Mekong River to Vietnam through Chau Doc on a tour with one night at a "floating" hotel...well, the boat cruise never happened on the Cambodian side since the boat driver "went home to the province" because of the Phcum Ben holidays in Cambodia.
We weren't told of this until we asked....so we went to the border on a minivan and crossed into Vietnam walking with our big and heavy packs on our backs for about 10 minutes to the ferry terminal. From there we took a boat to our "floating" hotel in Chau Doc, where our first meal in Vietnam was instant noodles (I heart tours in Asia...). The rest of the day was free to roam around but we didn't really find the interesting spots as our guidebook didn't have a map and neither did the tour guide so we went back to our hotel and read for the rest of the evening in their restaurant by the river.
The next day, we started early on our tour of Chau Doc, apparently it is a very large and famous city in the Mekong River Delta region because there are many fish farms in this area that export their fish (such as Basa) to western countries... now I know where our fish comes from (not really sure I wanted to know this...). This makes Chau Doc fish farmers very rich, as our guide told us these fish farmers make billions of Dongs per year (1 billion Dong is equivalent to US$50,000) depending on their farm size. These fish farmers live in a houseboat with a square opening in their floor where they feed the fish. When our guide poured the fish food in the water all the fish jumped and splashed around like crazy!!!! The food they are given are homemade fish food composed of water lily leaves, rice, and leftover meat/fish. We also visited a Champa village which is a small Muslim ethnic minority village in the Mekong. There was a small mosque and the children were learning Arabic. I don't know if I enjoy "visiting" ethnic minority villages with a tour group, something doesn't sit right with me about it. After that, we started making our way to Saigon by bus, visiting Sam Mountain en route where there is a nice temple in the mountain where you can see Cambodia from. Finally, 8-hours later we arrived in Saigon, a big bustling city with tall buildings and modern facilities.
Our first impression of Vietnam after two-days of driving through and touring around the Mekong was that it was more developed and wealthier than Cambodia. The roads were bigger with 2 lane highways, most of the buildings and homes were made of concrete and not bamboo/wooden structures like Cambodia. We didn't see any shacks or poverty comparable to that of Cambodia (from the bus window-don't know how much I can generalize, but Cambodia was much poorer from the bus window). There were also many graves in the middle of the rice fields as well. We saw many school children along the way in their uniforms and some older girls were wearing long white traditional Vietnamese dresses riding on bicycles (the typical Vietnam image...). Two very different war-torn countries...
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
The Beach & The Mountains... Commonality: Rainy Season & Transportation Woes
Hola chicos and chicas!
Sorry, it's been a while since we wrote... but other than a couple weekends away, it's been pretty much M-F 9-5 here! But those weekends were nice to be away from the hustle and bustle of chaotic Phnom Penh and it's infuriating traffic!
A few weekends ago, we went down to Sihanoukville. Sihanoukville is Cambodia's premiere beach resort town. Albeit it's a far cry from the beautiful Thai resorts not too far away, it's a pretty chilled out place. And wet... in rainy season. It rained for pretty much all but 3-hours of our time there! We took the 5:45pm bus out of Phnom Penh for the 4-hour ride there... which ended up arriving at 2:00am or so as our bus broke down about 2.5 hours out of Phnom Penh. So we arrived on bus #2, and as you can expect, at 2:00am, your choice of transportation to the beach is rather limited... to half-drunk moto-dop drivers... in the monsoon rain. So after agreeing to a $5 fare to get us to our hotel we jumped on the back of the bike partially covered by the moto driver's large poncho. It was going well, until he stopped at a gas station to ask for directions. But neither the gas station attendant or the driver knew where our hotel was. One phone call, and we were on the way again. We made it there about 5 minutes later, ran into the hotel, and gave the moto driver a $5 bill. What's that he said? No, he meant $10, with alcohol breath emanating from his mouth... well "No." was my answer... at which point he pleaded for $2 more. "No." $1 more... "No." At which point we got our room key and walked to our room soaked, but happy to be able to have a shower and go to bed. The next day was rather relaxing... it rained pretty much all day... so we spent the day reading and researching, in nice comfy chairs at a bar by the beach, for the portion of our trip up to Christmas/New Year's. In that afternoon and the next morning, we had pretty much set our itinerary through Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. A VERY productive weekend at the beach indeed... without having touched the water!
This past weekend, we decided to go to Mondulkiri, the easternmost province in Cambodia, where it's cooler, there are rolling hills, and elephants! And RAIN! It wasn't as bad as Sihanoukville, but it did rain a fair bit, making our jungle treks quite the muddy affair! We spent our first day doing a not-so-difficult hike through the jungle to a small waterfall with our guide Cham... a young guy who also went by the name of Cham Dundee or Cham Wayne, depending on the accent he was talking in! We started off by riding moto-dops to the village where the trailhead was. Riding a moto in Mondulkiri is significantly different from riding in Phnom Penh. Granted there's no traffic... but there's also little in terms of gravel under your tires! Making it a very slippery ride on the mud... which Nat got to learn first hand. We wondered why her moto was taking so long. When she arrived, her whole right side was a nice reddish brown hue. The moto driver had slowed down so much at one point that the bike slipped out from under them without the forward momentum. Luckilly the ground was soft (ie. muddy) and Nat's only war wound was a small almost unnoticeable scrape on the hand. Though her neck was a bit stiff the next morning even though she expertly avoided hitting her head on the ground. It's amazing how 3-months in Phnom Penh prepares you for these things, ehhh? Anyhow, once we arrived we hiked down the valley to the waterfall through lots of mud as well. I decided to wear sandals that day (bad move) and managed to slice open my left big toe a bit on a plant leaf I think. Not too bad though... worse were the ants! Black & red! The red ones sting a bit, but I'm told the black ones REALLY sting and it hurts for minutes. And they're EVERYWHERE! And BIG! Like 1 cm long big! Once we arrived, we saw a nice little waterfall where you could jump off the 10 foot cliff or so into the water below... which neither of us did. But we happily watched as others did. The way home was significantly less muddy as we chose the dry road back to the village where we began the hike! We were happy to be back to our lodge that evening though... where the gas-heated showers were nice and piping hot! You see, unlike Phnom Penh, Mondulkiri is a nice balmy 20 degrees or so with the rainy season and lots of wind! So not nearly as hot & sweaty! In fact it was a little chilly at times! It didn't help that our little wood huts were not completely sealed and there was a draft coming through in the evening. Don't get me wrong though, the huts were nice and cosy when they weren't leaking! Yes, we had a leaky one the first night we were there... and unfortunately one of the leaks was directly above the bed... so we laid Nat's poncho above the mosquito net to deflect the water. The lodge happily gave us another room the next day. Another note about this lodge was that there were animals everywhere! Cats, dogs, chickens, cows, horses... ants. All were pretty friendly though! The cats were free to roam around and often came and said hello, especially Cougar, a light beige and black cat, who didn't like it when you moved while he sat happily on you! Which he would let you know with his claws when you moved! And the dogs were friendly too, though fenced in around the owner's house. One time, one of them got loose and happily strolled into the lodge as well, tail wagging, tongue hanging! And then there were the cows and horses which lied/stood around in the field between the lodge and the wood huts. They seemed friendly and docile but we were warned not to get close! One funny thing is that the horses, when it rained, used the wood huts as shelter... so you may smell horse wafting up through the floorboards sometimes! Luckily our huts were not tall enough for them to stand under! But it happened to one couple we met while they were watching a movie with horses in it!
The second day in Mondulkiri was the highlight as it involved elephants! We went to visit the Elephant Valley Project that is run by a young Brit named Jack. It was an entertaining day, especially listening to Jack and his assistant Jemma chat like husband and wife! Jack's not so PC, so it was amusing at times to hear some of the things he that came out of his mouth. He was relishing next week when a new volunteer arrived, who's surname was Cock. I'll leave it at that. But Jack knows his stuff regarding elephants and has a good operation. His sanctuary now has 9 elephants, most of them overworked and badly treated elephants... because their owners couldn't afford not to overwork them or didn't know how to treat their elephants well. He's bought 3 of them outright, and rents the rest of them, while providing some jobs to some of the owners' families as well... training them how to be good mahouts. He's got 36 employees he says who either help the elephants, watch the workers' kids, or help out at the centre where they're building a small lodge for tourists to stay at. We saw 5 elephants in the morning... 1 male and 4 females... watched them as they learn to become elephants again, and helped wash some of them. They don't let you interact too much with the elephants since it is a sanctuary for them. In the afternoon, the mahouts, unfortunately, forgot to let them know where they were heading with the elephants, so we spent a nice afternoon looking for them... you know, they're only 10 feet all, 4 metres long, and weigh a ton... but the sanctuary has 600 hectares. So we ended up having a nice muddy walk through the jungle again! Unfortunately the guides guessed wrong on where the elephants might be. Oh well, we saw them in the morning, and Jack & Jemma offered us a discount. Overall it was a fun day and we were happy we went. We met some nice and funny people, including two Brits that Jack was heading to Laos with the next day... The lesson learned for the day: always let the Brit lead you, and stay back 50-feet, through a place where there may be landmines! =p
The next day (yesterday), we headed back to Phnom Penh. We had taken the Phnom Penh Sorya bus on the way up which was a comfortable, but 8-hour ride. So on the way back we decided to take a minivan which was supposed to take 6-hours. Supposed to. It was an adventurous ride back to say the least. As soon as we got into the van, we noticed a stink. The air-con was never turned on as well, which was OK, because the wind blew away the smell. But the ride that was supposed to take 6-hours, turned into 8-hours... as we stopped in every village along the way to pick-up or drop-off someone or cargo... and at every police checkpoint along the way, which there were 5 of. The buses don't need to stop at those checkpoints. I'm not sure what they check for at the checkpoints, but after the third one, after we had started rolling again, a police car with Air Force plates came zooming down the road towards us with siren and lights on and asked us to pull over. Apparently someone in the van, we believe she was the owner of the van as well, was smuggling some timber out of the province which is illegal. Well, that's the story we extracted, the true story may have been lost in translation. But, as with all police here in Cambodia, you've got to pay a fine/bribe before you can get on your way... which took a while for the lady and the policeman to negotiate... as we all sat around waiting. I believe that the initial requested "fine" was $25... but was negotiated down to $10. And 30 minutes later we were on our way, wood still in the van.
Anyhow, those are our stories for the last month or so. Our time in Cambodia is quickly coming to an end. On September 25, we resume our travels... and pure travel it will be! No more work! YAY! Well, at least Nat can say that right now, as she's already done... I've got another 10-days to go!
For any of you that are interested in meeting up, here's our itinerary until Christmas/New Year's:
Sep. 25 to Oct. 24: Vietnam from Ho Chi Minh City northward to Hanoi
Oct. 24 to Nov. 5: Laos from Vientiane northward to Luang Prabang
Nov. 5 to Dec. 4: Thailand from Chiang Mai southward to Ko Lipe
Dec. 4 to Dec. 17: Malaysia from Langkawi southward to Singapore
Dec. 17 to 21: Singapore
Dec. 21 to Jan. 6: Mauritius
We've got a few pics from Mondulkiri and will post those soon... didn't take a single one in Sihanoukville though!
Sorry, it's been a while since we wrote... but other than a couple weekends away, it's been pretty much M-F 9-5 here! But those weekends were nice to be away from the hustle and bustle of chaotic Phnom Penh and it's infuriating traffic!
A few weekends ago, we went down to Sihanoukville. Sihanoukville is Cambodia's premiere beach resort town. Albeit it's a far cry from the beautiful Thai resorts not too far away, it's a pretty chilled out place. And wet... in rainy season. It rained for pretty much all but 3-hours of our time there! We took the 5:45pm bus out of Phnom Penh for the 4-hour ride there... which ended up arriving at 2:00am or so as our bus broke down about 2.5 hours out of Phnom Penh. So we arrived on bus #2, and as you can expect, at 2:00am, your choice of transportation to the beach is rather limited... to half-drunk moto-dop drivers... in the monsoon rain. So after agreeing to a $5 fare to get us to our hotel we jumped on the back of the bike partially covered by the moto driver's large poncho. It was going well, until he stopped at a gas station to ask for directions. But neither the gas station attendant or the driver knew where our hotel was. One phone call, and we were on the way again. We made it there about 5 minutes later, ran into the hotel, and gave the moto driver a $5 bill. What's that he said? No, he meant $10, with alcohol breath emanating from his mouth... well "No." was my answer... at which point he pleaded for $2 more. "No." $1 more... "No." At which point we got our room key and walked to our room soaked, but happy to be able to have a shower and go to bed. The next day was rather relaxing... it rained pretty much all day... so we spent the day reading and researching, in nice comfy chairs at a bar by the beach, for the portion of our trip up to Christmas/New Year's. In that afternoon and the next morning, we had pretty much set our itinerary through Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. A VERY productive weekend at the beach indeed... without having touched the water!
This past weekend, we decided to go to Mondulkiri, the easternmost province in Cambodia, where it's cooler, there are rolling hills, and elephants! And RAIN! It wasn't as bad as Sihanoukville, but it did rain a fair bit, making our jungle treks quite the muddy affair! We spent our first day doing a not-so-difficult hike through the jungle to a small waterfall with our guide Cham... a young guy who also went by the name of Cham Dundee or Cham Wayne, depending on the accent he was talking in! We started off by riding moto-dops to the village where the trailhead was. Riding a moto in Mondulkiri is significantly different from riding in Phnom Penh. Granted there's no traffic... but there's also little in terms of gravel under your tires! Making it a very slippery ride on the mud... which Nat got to learn first hand. We wondered why her moto was taking so long. When she arrived, her whole right side was a nice reddish brown hue. The moto driver had slowed down so much at one point that the bike slipped out from under them without the forward momentum. Luckilly the ground was soft (ie. muddy) and Nat's only war wound was a small almost unnoticeable scrape on the hand. Though her neck was a bit stiff the next morning even though she expertly avoided hitting her head on the ground. It's amazing how 3-months in Phnom Penh prepares you for these things, ehhh? Anyhow, once we arrived we hiked down the valley to the waterfall through lots of mud as well. I decided to wear sandals that day (bad move) and managed to slice open my left big toe a bit on a plant leaf I think. Not too bad though... worse were the ants! Black & red! The red ones sting a bit, but I'm told the black ones REALLY sting and it hurts for minutes. And they're EVERYWHERE! And BIG! Like 1 cm long big! Once we arrived, we saw a nice little waterfall where you could jump off the 10 foot cliff or so into the water below... which neither of us did. But we happily watched as others did. The way home was significantly less muddy as we chose the dry road back to the village where we began the hike! We were happy to be back to our lodge that evening though... where the gas-heated showers were nice and piping hot! You see, unlike Phnom Penh, Mondulkiri is a nice balmy 20 degrees or so with the rainy season and lots of wind! So not nearly as hot & sweaty! In fact it was a little chilly at times! It didn't help that our little wood huts were not completely sealed and there was a draft coming through in the evening. Don't get me wrong though, the huts were nice and cosy when they weren't leaking! Yes, we had a leaky one the first night we were there... and unfortunately one of the leaks was directly above the bed... so we laid Nat's poncho above the mosquito net to deflect the water. The lodge happily gave us another room the next day. Another note about this lodge was that there were animals everywhere! Cats, dogs, chickens, cows, horses... ants. All were pretty friendly though! The cats were free to roam around and often came and said hello, especially Cougar, a light beige and black cat, who didn't like it when you moved while he sat happily on you! Which he would let you know with his claws when you moved! And the dogs were friendly too, though fenced in around the owner's house. One time, one of them got loose and happily strolled into the lodge as well, tail wagging, tongue hanging! And then there were the cows and horses which lied/stood around in the field between the lodge and the wood huts. They seemed friendly and docile but we were warned not to get close! One funny thing is that the horses, when it rained, used the wood huts as shelter... so you may smell horse wafting up through the floorboards sometimes! Luckily our huts were not tall enough for them to stand under! But it happened to one couple we met while they were watching a movie with horses in it!
The second day in Mondulkiri was the highlight as it involved elephants! We went to visit the Elephant Valley Project that is run by a young Brit named Jack. It was an entertaining day, especially listening to Jack and his assistant Jemma chat like husband and wife! Jack's not so PC, so it was amusing at times to hear some of the things he that came out of his mouth. He was relishing next week when a new volunteer arrived, who's surname was Cock. I'll leave it at that. But Jack knows his stuff regarding elephants and has a good operation. His sanctuary now has 9 elephants, most of them overworked and badly treated elephants... because their owners couldn't afford not to overwork them or didn't know how to treat their elephants well. He's bought 3 of them outright, and rents the rest of them, while providing some jobs to some of the owners' families as well... training them how to be good mahouts. He's got 36 employees he says who either help the elephants, watch the workers' kids, or help out at the centre where they're building a small lodge for tourists to stay at. We saw 5 elephants in the morning... 1 male and 4 females... watched them as they learn to become elephants again, and helped wash some of them. They don't let you interact too much with the elephants since it is a sanctuary for them. In the afternoon, the mahouts, unfortunately, forgot to let them know where they were heading with the elephants, so we spent a nice afternoon looking for them... you know, they're only 10 feet all, 4 metres long, and weigh a ton... but the sanctuary has 600 hectares. So we ended up having a nice muddy walk through the jungle again! Unfortunately the guides guessed wrong on where the elephants might be. Oh well, we saw them in the morning, and Jack & Jemma offered us a discount. Overall it was a fun day and we were happy we went. We met some nice and funny people, including two Brits that Jack was heading to Laos with the next day... The lesson learned for the day: always let the Brit lead you, and stay back 50-feet, through a place where there may be landmines! =p
The next day (yesterday), we headed back to Phnom Penh. We had taken the Phnom Penh Sorya bus on the way up which was a comfortable, but 8-hour ride. So on the way back we decided to take a minivan which was supposed to take 6-hours. Supposed to. It was an adventurous ride back to say the least. As soon as we got into the van, we noticed a stink. The air-con was never turned on as well, which was OK, because the wind blew away the smell. But the ride that was supposed to take 6-hours, turned into 8-hours... as we stopped in every village along the way to pick-up or drop-off someone or cargo... and at every police checkpoint along the way, which there were 5 of. The buses don't need to stop at those checkpoints. I'm not sure what they check for at the checkpoints, but after the third one, after we had started rolling again, a police car with Air Force plates came zooming down the road towards us with siren and lights on and asked us to pull over. Apparently someone in the van, we believe she was the owner of the van as well, was smuggling some timber out of the province which is illegal. Well, that's the story we extracted, the true story may have been lost in translation. But, as with all police here in Cambodia, you've got to pay a fine/bribe before you can get on your way... which took a while for the lady and the policeman to negotiate... as we all sat around waiting. I believe that the initial requested "fine" was $25... but was negotiated down to $10. And 30 minutes later we were on our way, wood still in the van.
Anyhow, those are our stories for the last month or so. Our time in Cambodia is quickly coming to an end. On September 25, we resume our travels... and pure travel it will be! No more work! YAY! Well, at least Nat can say that right now, as she's already done... I've got another 10-days to go!
For any of you that are interested in meeting up, here's our itinerary until Christmas/New Year's:
Sep. 25 to Oct. 24: Vietnam from Ho Chi Minh City northward to Hanoi
Oct. 24 to Nov. 5: Laos from Vientiane northward to Luang Prabang
Nov. 5 to Dec. 4: Thailand from Chiang Mai southward to Ko Lipe
Dec. 4 to Dec. 17: Malaysia from Langkawi southward to Singapore
Dec. 17 to 21: Singapore
Dec. 21 to Jan. 6: Mauritius
We've got a few pics from Mondulkiri and will post those soon... didn't take a single one in Sihanoukville though!
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
I won’t bore you...
... with our uneventful 7 hour bus ride to Siem Reap. We arrived at our guest house (With a pool!!! YAY!!! $20 per night with breakfast – it was a splurge!) at around 9:00pm, went out for dinner at Pub Street, which we got lured into a Khmer place which was bloody expensive for what it served. But I was tired and hungry so I didn’t argue. Siem Reap was full of foreigners and so the locals spoke more English (at least in the tourist areas). There were too many adults and kids trying to sell stuff at every temple/street/night market that you were barely able to walk without someone asking you to " Lady, BUY something". We were only there for 3 days and I was getting tired already… I suppose the sole purpose for many who come to Cambodia is to visit the Angkor temples, and it’s a huge source of income for the people so it breeds this kind of behaviour.
We started the next morning at 9:00am with our tuktuk driver named Som (nickname: Cobra). We went to get our 3-day pass ($40) and then he took us to the famous Angkor Wat which was built by Suryavarnam II in the 12th century “as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation – first Hindu, dedicated to the god Vishnu, then Buddhist. It is the world's largest religious building” as per Wikipedia.
Angkor Wat was huge! And it was well preserved due to the amount of conservation efforts taking place, it would have been more romantic if the green scaffolding weren’t there on the middle tower smack bang in the middle of your pictures, and the millions of people didn’t get in the way of your picture (I am guessing everybody thought that). Weaving through many tourists like us, we went around the temple viewing the 4 carved walls depicting various Hindu stories like the classic Ramayana story where Sita is abducted and Rama comes to the rescue, to the 37 Hells and 32 Heavens (or something like that); the Churning of the Milk where the demons and gods are ringing/playing tug of war/churning with a massive serpent and rings out the “milk” (nectar of immortal life) which Vishnu in the form of a turtle catches in his shell. The last one was Krishna and Shiva battling with the demon lord. We also went up to the centre of the temple, climbing up really steep stairs to the top which is now resided by Buddha statues. The Cambodian history is deeply rooted in Hinduism, and for me it was interesting how Buddhism and Hinduism amalgamated together.
We visited about 12 temples/ruins in total over the 3 days so I won’t bore you with describing all of them. Otherwise this entry would go on forever, but we did like Banteay Srei (I think it was dedicated to Lakshmi) which was really well preserved and made from red sandstone, and Beng Melea which is about 60km from Siem Reap but well worth the visit (if anyone is planning to!).
Our days ended with a nice dip in the pool afterwards as we were sticky, hot, and dusty from riding for hours in the tuktuk. We then proceeded to dinner followed by an hour long foot massage after, oh bliss!
Anyways, we returned to Phnom Penh after 3 days of temples (we were templed out), our bus journey consisted of almost leaving a eastern European family stranded at a rest stop, and a man shouting and screaming in anger about something. After we got back we both caught a cold and have been slowly recovering.
For more photos of Siem Reap and Angkor Wat: https://picasaweb.google.com/natsufujita/CambodiaJuneJuly?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNjJ14zgnpap3QE&feat=directlink
We started the next morning at 9:00am with our tuktuk driver named Som (nickname: Cobra). We went to get our 3-day pass ($40) and then he took us to the famous Angkor Wat which was built by Suryavarnam II in the 12th century “as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation – first Hindu, dedicated to the god Vishnu, then Buddhist. It is the world's largest religious building” as per Wikipedia.
Angkor Wat was huge! And it was well preserved due to the amount of conservation efforts taking place, it would have been more romantic if the green scaffolding weren’t there on the middle tower smack bang in the middle of your pictures, and the millions of people didn’t get in the way of your picture (I am guessing everybody thought that). Weaving through many tourists like us, we went around the temple viewing the 4 carved walls depicting various Hindu stories like the classic Ramayana story where Sita is abducted and Rama comes to the rescue, to the 37 Hells and 32 Heavens (or something like that); the Churning of the Milk where the demons and gods are ringing/playing tug of war/churning with a massive serpent and rings out the “milk” (nectar of immortal life) which Vishnu in the form of a turtle catches in his shell. The last one was Krishna and Shiva battling with the demon lord. We also went up to the centre of the temple, climbing up really steep stairs to the top which is now resided by Buddha statues. The Cambodian history is deeply rooted in Hinduism, and for me it was interesting how Buddhism and Hinduism amalgamated together.
We visited about 12 temples/ruins in total over the 3 days so I won’t bore you with describing all of them. Otherwise this entry would go on forever, but we did like Banteay Srei (I think it was dedicated to Lakshmi) which was really well preserved and made from red sandstone, and Beng Melea which is about 60km from Siem Reap but well worth the visit (if anyone is planning to!).
Our days ended with a nice dip in the pool afterwards as we were sticky, hot, and dusty from riding for hours in the tuktuk. We then proceeded to dinner followed by an hour long foot massage after, oh bliss!
Anyways, we returned to Phnom Penh after 3 days of temples (we were templed out), our bus journey consisted of almost leaving a eastern European family stranded at a rest stop, and a man shouting and screaming in anger about something. After we got back we both caught a cold and have been slowly recovering.
For more photos of Siem Reap and Angkor Wat: https://picasaweb.google.com/natsufujita/CambodiaJuneJuly?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNjJ14zgnpap3QE&feat=directlink
Monday, August 15, 2011
Battambang
It's the second largest city in Cambodia which is situated northwest of Phnom Penh, and is a 6 hour bus ride journey where you get to listen to Khmer pop/love songs over and over again (the same song sung by different people) for the 6 hours. I still have the tune in my head! We took Friday off work and went on a day bus, where we got to see the rural scenery of Cambodia, lots of rice paddies. The bus itself was not too bad; we sat in the front row so we could see the road. The bus stopped frequently picking up passengers along the way who sat in the aisle on plastic chairs.
Battambang was a nice small city, laid back, where we could actually walk around and cross the street, and it wouldn't be a bad place to ride a bicycle. We really enjoyed the bamboo train which is a bamboo platform which sits on two axles and drives down old railway tracks for about 7km. It goes pretty fast and is very bumpy as the tracks are not well aligned. No seat belts, no side rails, welcome to Cambodia! And as there is only one track, when another train comes from the opposite direction, one side has to take the train off the tracks and the passengers have to wait. On the other side we had some drinks, walked around to the brick factory, played with some kids, and shared some snacks... and of course as always in Asia, a girl from the shop and her father comes to us and asks us to tip the driver as they don't get paid much, even though they charged us $4 per person for the ride...$4x5=$20 that's a fair profit in Cambodia for one ride!
Anyways, after that we went to the one and only winery in Cambodia, $2 for a tasting... Red wine, grape juice, and ginger juice. In my opinion the wine was horrible, grape juice was disgusting, and the ginger was at least tolerable...We shared the tasting as I wasn't that keen and am glad that we did because I wouldn't have finished mine. I really wanted coffee, but hey, its Cambodia, they ran out!
Our next stop was the old temple of Phnom Banan, where we had to climb approximately 300 rugged stairs to see temples that were built during the Angkor period. Quite run down but nice view from the top! Ascending down 300 of those big steps was quite challenging though!
And to our last destination! The killing caves and the bat caves which took a very long and interesting tuk tuk ride through the countryside with rice paddies and on unpaved roads which soon became muddy with the monsoon rain. This was interesting because all of a sudden our tuk tuk started making a funny sound and the driver kept looking at it... we thought the wheel was going to fall off as it started leaning to the right. We found out that the right side tire was flat when we finally got to a paved road.
So it was pouring, pouring, pouring and pouring... we ate lunch and waited and waited, but the rain didn't stop so we bought our $0.50 ponchos and walked up 700 steps up the mountain to find the killing cave and bat cave, which took us a while - there were no signs to direct us anywhere so it probably took us a good couple hours to find them. There were gorgeous views along the way though! The killing cave was depressing as any other Khmer Rouge legacy that we have seen thus far, people were killed I guess on the cliff edge and their bodies were dropped down into this cave. The bat cave was a large cave at the bottom of the mountain which is a home to many many bats that fly out in hordes at 6:00pm every evening to find food. Thousands flew out... we left before they were done leaving because there were so many!
Apparently the bamboo train is going to cease operation soon as they are going to replace the tracks and actually start a train service from Phnom Penh, so all those who plan to come to Cambodia, you probably won't see the bamboo train, but the other sites in Battambang are nice and it's a nice laid back little place!
More pics at: https://picasaweb.google.com/natsufujita/CambodiaJuneJuly?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNjJ14zgnpap3QE&feat=directlink
More pics at: https://picasaweb.google.com/natsufujita/CambodiaJuneJuly?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNjJ14zgnpap3QE&feat=directlink
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Grassroots...
Today, we spent the day with an organization called C.H.O.I.C.E. It's a grassroots organization run by a small bunch of expats and Khmers here in Cambodia. What we learned in one day is that small organizations are much more effective than the slower bigger (and probably corrupt) aid organizations
C.H.O.I.C.E. helps out a small number of very poor villages surrounding Phnom Penh. They bring small amounts of food, provide some basic healthcare for mothers and their children, and even set up a small school which serves almost 50 children. And they do this on a weekly/twice-weekly basis.
It's amazing to see that in a country where there are so many Lexus's... and you wonder how so many can afford these all of these luxury vehicles (could it be the numerous kickbacks at all levels of governments? Hmmm...)... that there is such a level of poverty around. Most of the people in these villages live in bamboo huts without running water or toilets. Heck, most of these people can barely find any work most of the time. They squat on land by the dirt roads the governments built through private property (most owned by politicians of course). And we were told that most are homeless like this because of land grabbing, which is rampant here in Cambodia. The land grabbing also doesn't always occur to build productive infrastructure like a railroad or highway... often it's for some project owned by a politician or well-connected businessman. I'm all for capitalism, but if you're going to displace people, at least give them market value and more for the land, and do it for some good reason. In the west, there's far too much red tape, here there's not enough.
Corruption is rampant as well... it takes place at all levels... including the local school teacher! School is supposed to be free for the people here... but how is it free when you have to pay-off the teacher to provide your children with some attention? But sometimes you have to wonder if there's a reason behind it... wages are so low, that could they survive without having to take "corruption money"?
Anyhow... I've run off topic. Back to C.H.O.I.C.E... these guys do good work, and I think it's a worthy cause worth supporting. So take a look at their website, and if you agree with me, throw a little money their way. The money will go a lot farther than if you donated to an organization like the United Way/World Vision, etc.
http://www.choice-cambodia.org/
$25 buys them a 50kg bag of rice... which will feed about 20 families for a few days from my calculations while filling up food bags. They also bring powdered milk to nursing mothers who don't have sufficient nourishment to feed their babies (eg. Today, at our last stop... we found a mother crying with two twin babies who had been born within the last couple weeks. She had just moved to the village where the elders let her stay in a hut that had recently been abandoned. The father was nowhere to be found... apparently he had run away, but at least he shows up once in a while with a little money... anyhow she was crying because she had no way to feed/provide for the babies, let alone herself and her other son. She even offered the two twin babies to our group to take with us so that we can bring them to an orphanage... her wish was not fulfilled, but the C.H.O.I.C.E. guys will be back on Wednesday with powdered milk and water for her). And when they find people who need further healthcare, they bring them back to the city, with family, and bring them to a hospital... and feed the supporting family while in town, as the hospital only feeds patients.
C.H.O.I.C.E. helps out a small number of very poor villages surrounding Phnom Penh. They bring small amounts of food, provide some basic healthcare for mothers and their children, and even set up a small school which serves almost 50 children. And they do this on a weekly/twice-weekly basis.
It's amazing to see that in a country where there are so many Lexus's... and you wonder how so many can afford these all of these luxury vehicles (could it be the numerous kickbacks at all levels of governments? Hmmm...)... that there is such a level of poverty around. Most of the people in these villages live in bamboo huts without running water or toilets. Heck, most of these people can barely find any work most of the time. They squat on land by the dirt roads the governments built through private property (most owned by politicians of course). And we were told that most are homeless like this because of land grabbing, which is rampant here in Cambodia. The land grabbing also doesn't always occur to build productive infrastructure like a railroad or highway... often it's for some project owned by a politician or well-connected businessman. I'm all for capitalism, but if you're going to displace people, at least give them market value and more for the land, and do it for some good reason. In the west, there's far too much red tape, here there's not enough.
Corruption is rampant as well... it takes place at all levels... including the local school teacher! School is supposed to be free for the people here... but how is it free when you have to pay-off the teacher to provide your children with some attention? But sometimes you have to wonder if there's a reason behind it... wages are so low, that could they survive without having to take "corruption money"?
Anyhow... I've run off topic. Back to C.H.O.I.C.E... these guys do good work, and I think it's a worthy cause worth supporting. So take a look at their website, and if you agree with me, throw a little money their way. The money will go a lot farther than if you donated to an organization like the United Way/World Vision, etc.
http://www.choice-cambodia.org/
$25 buys them a 50kg bag of rice... which will feed about 20 families for a few days from my calculations while filling up food bags. They also bring powdered milk to nursing mothers who don't have sufficient nourishment to feed their babies (eg. Today, at our last stop... we found a mother crying with two twin babies who had been born within the last couple weeks. She had just moved to the village where the elders let her stay in a hut that had recently been abandoned. The father was nowhere to be found... apparently he had run away, but at least he shows up once in a while with a little money... anyhow she was crying because she had no way to feed/provide for the babies, let alone herself and her other son. She even offered the two twin babies to our group to take with us so that we can bring them to an orphanage... her wish was not fulfilled, but the C.H.O.I.C.E. guys will be back on Wednesday with powdered milk and water for her). And when they find people who need further healthcare, they bring them back to the city, with family, and bring them to a hospital... and feed the supporting family while in town, as the hospital only feeds patients.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
July 10 - Toul Sleng Genocide Museum
 |
| One of the torture rooms in Toul Sleng |
The Khmer Rouge came into power in 1975, and the people of Cambodia rejoiced as it was thought to be the end of the civil unrest in their country, but alas, it was probably the worst nightmare that happened. People were forced to move from the city to the countryside to farm. They were made to do hard labor creating infrastructure or farming for 14-15 hours a day. Food and water was rationed and restricted that most people were malnourished and starving. Besides the ones that were tortured and killed during this time, many more perished from starvation and fatigue. Families were separated, and children were made to work. Educated people were taken away to prisons to be tortured and then killed. One of these prisons was S21, which was formerly a high school converted into a prison... innocent people were brought here and tortured in very barbaric ways, many of them were young...many children. People were stuffed into overcrowded rooms with little place to sleep, no bathroom, they were shackled, and then were taken to the killing fields late at night never to return...
 | |
| Pictures on the wall of the dead victims that were found |
And the other thing was that people who ran the Khmer Rouge were highly educated people who traveled the world! Studied in France and all. I wonder if everyone was evil? Or were they brainwashed? Were the torturers in S21 really terrible, cold hearted people? (they looked pretty normal in the pictures) Or were they scared shit less? Even if you were scared for yourself, it doesn't make what you did right, if you were in that position what would you do?
In the end, Pol Pot, the person who created this hell on earth, died of a heart attack, just like Hitler shot himself, and the people feel they got no justice...life is cruel.
Despite such a recent traumatic event, the people still smile at you with curiosity, and are welcoming people. People who have the means are trying to get educated and, like all countries, the gap between the haves and the have-nots is getting bigger and bigger...
These are the thoughts going through my head as I sip on my afternoon coffee in the office with nothing to do... and it is raining cats and dogs outside... "take is easy", the Khmer way of life.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Catching up
It has been a while since our last blog post, so much has happened over the last 3-4 weeks that everything is starting to amalgamate into one experience! From our last post, we described our India experience... after that we flew to Kuala Lumpur (KL) after waiting in the empty Mumbai airport for many hours (we had a late flight, and were too lazy to go anywhere after checking out from the hotel!). The flight itself was uneventful, and the aircraft was quite empty so we both had a whole row of seats to ourselves, although it wasn't that comfortable. But at least the flight was cheap! I think we only paid $150 for the Air Asia flight! Our KL experience was really good, it is a foodies dream to be in KL with the variety of foods and the mix of different ethnic spices.
We had a lovely time there with Satakshee who I have not seen for 10+ years... thank you for being such a great host! We saw most of the tourist sites in KL, except for the Twin Towers as the tickets to go up to the bridge were sold out by 9:00am in the morning... so instead we went to KL Tower that evening. It is much like the CN Tower in Toronto or any other tower; we got to see KL, took a few pictures and then came back down. Jalan Alor was amazing! It is a street full of Chinese hawker stalls that stay open until 5:00am in the morning. You sit at a table and order from different vendors and the system somehow works and everybody gets their money. We had delicious chili crab, stir fried veggies, rice, and dim sum! Which was a lovely change from Indian style food for the last month! Our experience in KL was only 2 days, but we really enjoyed it and are hoping to go back to explore other places (and restaurants!)!
We flew Air Asia as well from KL to Phnom Penh on the 18th of June where we met Sebastian, our volunteer coordinator, and 2 other volunteers, Hope and Melissa from New York who are experiencing Asia for the first time!
Phnom Penh... is much like any other city in a developing country really, with tuktuks and moto taxis, harrowing traffic with cars, bikes, and people going everywhere (but not half as bad as Nepal!). But...we were very surprised by the number of luxury cars we saw on the streets of Phnom Penh. Primarily Lexus's, a few Mercedes's, BMWs, Bentleys, Land Rovers, Range Rovers, and even a Hummer!!!! There are some very rich people in this city, or they like to think they are by flaunting nice cars. It was mentioned that you might see a family with an old wooden house with a Lexus in the driveway! So imagine the roads with huge SUVs and then these tiny motorbike taxis that wind through traffic and the numerous flimsy tuktuks trying to compete with these big cars... to give you an idea, they said that traffic accidents has increased 166% and is the leading risk in Phnom Penh!!! And the doctor at International SOS told us that!
When we first arrived, we stayed at the volunteer guesthouse with the other volunteers until we found our apartment. It is called Tattoo Guest house and is pretty decent with nice friendly people that run it. The accommodation included breakfast, lunch, and dinner which was not bad (albeit you could get fed up of it very fast if you were there for more than 2-3 weeks). Orientation was 2-days, where we met everyone, learned a little about Cambodia, and got our phones (e-mail us if you want our number!), etc.
Our first weekend in Cambodia, we went on a trip with other volunteers to a beach town called Kep. It was organized by the volunteer placement agency, so was a good weekend to get away, relax, and to get to know some people... it was a really nice beach, the ocean was a little rough but good!
My actual volunteer experience has been very slow at a local NGO in the city... it has been quite frustrating to find a role, or a job within an organization that does not have the capacity to see where you can help, or how your skills would be helpful. Apparently I am the first nurse volunteer in the Phnom Penh office. It seems that everywhere, their greatest need is English... so hey if you are interested in teaching English in a developing country, then this is the place for you! =) I feel like this has been a reality check for me in terms of the pace/flow of work, how decisions are made in an NGO (I might be generalizing!), and how things are in developing nations. My expectations of work and my role did not match what the NGO actually does - my misunderstanding? Or lack of information? So it has been frustrating and disappointing to say the least... but I am not yet defeated... I am going to try and make the best of my time here (although we are thinking of shortening our volunteering period!). I did have my first victory yesterday, though! I held a toothbrushing session at one of the organization's schools last week where I told the kids that they need to brush their teeth each time for 2-minutes... and yesterday I got feedback that they're actually doing it!!! The work hours here are quite different... 8:00am-12:00pm, then a 2-hour lunch break, and then 2:00-5:00pm!!! And the markets close at 5:00pm! At least the supermarkets are open later.
Being here, has made us really appreciate home, and what we have... and we miss everyone! And I never thought I would say this, but I actually miss work, or maybe just using my brain! (it's different growing up in Asia vs. living here as an adult)
We had a lovely time there with Satakshee who I have not seen for 10+ years... thank you for being such a great host! We saw most of the tourist sites in KL, except for the Twin Towers as the tickets to go up to the bridge were sold out by 9:00am in the morning... so instead we went to KL Tower that evening. It is much like the CN Tower in Toronto or any other tower; we got to see KL, took a few pictures and then came back down. Jalan Alor was amazing! It is a street full of Chinese hawker stalls that stay open until 5:00am in the morning. You sit at a table and order from different vendors and the system somehow works and everybody gets their money. We had delicious chili crab, stir fried veggies, rice, and dim sum! Which was a lovely change from Indian style food for the last month! Our experience in KL was only 2 days, but we really enjoyed it and are hoping to go back to explore other places (and restaurants!)!
We flew Air Asia as well from KL to Phnom Penh on the 18th of June where we met Sebastian, our volunteer coordinator, and 2 other volunteers, Hope and Melissa from New York who are experiencing Asia for the first time!
Phnom Penh... is much like any other city in a developing country really, with tuktuks and moto taxis, harrowing traffic with cars, bikes, and people going everywhere (but not half as bad as Nepal!). But...we were very surprised by the number of luxury cars we saw on the streets of Phnom Penh. Primarily Lexus's, a few Mercedes's, BMWs, Bentleys, Land Rovers, Range Rovers, and even a Hummer!!!! There are some very rich people in this city, or they like to think they are by flaunting nice cars. It was mentioned that you might see a family with an old wooden house with a Lexus in the driveway! So imagine the roads with huge SUVs and then these tiny motorbike taxis that wind through traffic and the numerous flimsy tuktuks trying to compete with these big cars... to give you an idea, they said that traffic accidents has increased 166% and is the leading risk in Phnom Penh!!! And the doctor at International SOS told us that!
When we first arrived, we stayed at the volunteer guesthouse with the other volunteers until we found our apartment. It is called Tattoo Guest house and is pretty decent with nice friendly people that run it. The accommodation included breakfast, lunch, and dinner which was not bad (albeit you could get fed up of it very fast if you were there for more than 2-3 weeks). Orientation was 2-days, where we met everyone, learned a little about Cambodia, and got our phones (e-mail us if you want our number!), etc.
Our first weekend in Cambodia, we went on a trip with other volunteers to a beach town called Kep. It was organized by the volunteer placement agency, so was a good weekend to get away, relax, and to get to know some people... it was a really nice beach, the ocean was a little rough but good!
My actual volunteer experience has been very slow at a local NGO in the city... it has been quite frustrating to find a role, or a job within an organization that does not have the capacity to see where you can help, or how your skills would be helpful. Apparently I am the first nurse volunteer in the Phnom Penh office. It seems that everywhere, their greatest need is English... so hey if you are interested in teaching English in a developing country, then this is the place for you! =) I feel like this has been a reality check for me in terms of the pace/flow of work, how decisions are made in an NGO (I might be generalizing!), and how things are in developing nations. My expectations of work and my role did not match what the NGO actually does - my misunderstanding? Or lack of information? So it has been frustrating and disappointing to say the least... but I am not yet defeated... I am going to try and make the best of my time here (although we are thinking of shortening our volunteering period!). I did have my first victory yesterday, though! I held a toothbrushing session at one of the organization's schools last week where I told the kids that they need to brush their teeth each time for 2-minutes... and yesterday I got feedback that they're actually doing it!!! The work hours here are quite different... 8:00am-12:00pm, then a 2-hour lunch break, and then 2:00-5:00pm!!! And the markets close at 5:00pm! At least the supermarkets are open later.
Being here, has made us really appreciate home, and what we have... and we miss everyone! And I never thought I would say this, but I actually miss work, or maybe just using my brain! (it's different growing up in Asia vs. living here as an adult)
Saturday, June 25, 2011
In the minivan...
On the way to Kep, a beach town on the Cambodian coastline, listening to the album for Shaitan, hit Bollywood movie... So figured it'd be a good time to update the blog on our stop in India! It's long overdue as we've been in Cambodia for a week already.
Well, back on June 6, we flew from Dhaka to Mumbai to see Nat's old friend, and now star Bollywood actress, Kalki. Little did we know that a star's life was one that was so hectic!
We had learned a little ahead of time that her filming schedule had been pushed back a couple days and that she'd only be back in Mumbai now on the 8th. So the first couple days were a little relaxed and we got to enjoy the film library of Anurag Kashyap, star Bollywood director/producer and also Kalki's husband! We took the chance to watch Kalki's first hit film (and directed/written by Anurag), Dev D... Which was excellent!
The next day was also relaxed and we did a bit of sightseeing... We had originally wanted to go to Elephanta Island, but the seas were too choppy meaning the tour boats weren't operating. Instead we saw the Gateway to India, walked around Colaba and then up to Victoria Station and its surroundings. In the evening we met up with Mitali and Amy, two other of Nat's lovely high school friends! Those two were a hoot to hang around with! Thanks for taking us to the mango milkshake place!
It's the day after when our 24-hours of the star's life experience began! As soon as Kalki got off the plane in the late afternoon, after wrapping up filming early that morning in some rural Indian town 5-hours from the closest airport, we were off to a press conference for her film that was being released in a couple days, Shaitan! Which BTW, is awesome even if we didn't understand the dialogue! This was followed by a 9:00pm screening, which was almost 3-hours long... Did you know that Indian films have intermissions? And the next morning we all flew to Delhi at 6:00am, where there was another cast press conference and other promotional events including a nightclub appearance... It's nonstop ALL DAY! We fortunately skipped the daytime events and took in some of Delhi's sites including the National Museum and India Gate... Yes, there's a Gateway to India and India Gate!
The next morning we parted ways, with Kalki and Anurag returning to Mumbai and us heading to Goa. We weren't alone though, as Gulshan Devaiah, another one of Shaitan's main actors and up & coming star and also one of the nicest guys around, was on the plane with us as he was heading to Bangalore (and our flight flew through there before heading to Goa), his hometown, to perform in a play there. His character in the movie, KC, is a playboy rough & tumble guy... Which makes Gulshan's performance so impressive as he is so different from his character in real life! Anyhow, enough talk! GO SEE THE MOVIE! It should be available on iTunes soon I'm guessing as Bollywood movies generally have short theatre runs compared to Hollywood movies and are released on DVD within weeks rather than months!
Goa... You know what, I prefer Thai beaches. Maybe it was because of monsoon season, but for India's busiest beach area, it was pretty rundown. But, that didn't stop us from doing what we wanted... Relaxing and swimming in the ocean, although a bit choppy. BTW, when the monsoon is on, it's better to be in the water! Though, the best shower we had in Goa was when we got caught on the scooter in the monsoon!!! (Aside, the minivan I'm in right now almost hit two kids on a motorcycle that decided to turn in front of the oncoming minivan... Oh well, survival of the fittest.)
As it was monsoon season, a lot of businesses were packing up for the season and their owners heading off on holidays. And this didn't only mean padlocking the front door... It meant that the whole business disappeared, structure and all! One restaurant even demolished their brick clay oven! We were told that these business owners did not lease their land through the monsoon season and therefore had to leave the land bare. Day by day, another business had literally disappeared. This left only a handful of restaurants open, and we only liked two of them! It did make our personal Nepali waiter very happy when we showed up at the only open beachfront restaurant daily, or even twice or thrice daily!!! We were even the last customers that our guesthouse owner took before he flew to Europe the next day! Anyhow, it was a nice relaxing few days... But next time I'll head to Thailand for the beach!
Well, almost in Kep now... Will write again soon!
Well, back on June 6, we flew from Dhaka to Mumbai to see Nat's old friend, and now star Bollywood actress, Kalki. Little did we know that a star's life was one that was so hectic!
We had learned a little ahead of time that her filming schedule had been pushed back a couple days and that she'd only be back in Mumbai now on the 8th. So the first couple days were a little relaxed and we got to enjoy the film library of Anurag Kashyap, star Bollywood director/producer and also Kalki's husband! We took the chance to watch Kalki's first hit film (and directed/written by Anurag), Dev D... Which was excellent!
The next day was also relaxed and we did a bit of sightseeing... We had originally wanted to go to Elephanta Island, but the seas were too choppy meaning the tour boats weren't operating. Instead we saw the Gateway to India, walked around Colaba and then up to Victoria Station and its surroundings. In the evening we met up with Mitali and Amy, two other of Nat's lovely high school friends! Those two were a hoot to hang around with! Thanks for taking us to the mango milkshake place!
It's the day after when our 24-hours of the star's life experience began! As soon as Kalki got off the plane in the late afternoon, after wrapping up filming early that morning in some rural Indian town 5-hours from the closest airport, we were off to a press conference for her film that was being released in a couple days, Shaitan! Which BTW, is awesome even if we didn't understand the dialogue! This was followed by a 9:00pm screening, which was almost 3-hours long... Did you know that Indian films have intermissions? And the next morning we all flew to Delhi at 6:00am, where there was another cast press conference and other promotional events including a nightclub appearance... It's nonstop ALL DAY! We fortunately skipped the daytime events and took in some of Delhi's sites including the National Museum and India Gate... Yes, there's a Gateway to India and India Gate!
The next morning we parted ways, with Kalki and Anurag returning to Mumbai and us heading to Goa. We weren't alone though, as Gulshan Devaiah, another one of Shaitan's main actors and up & coming star and also one of the nicest guys around, was on the plane with us as he was heading to Bangalore (and our flight flew through there before heading to Goa), his hometown, to perform in a play there. His character in the movie, KC, is a playboy rough & tumble guy... Which makes Gulshan's performance so impressive as he is so different from his character in real life! Anyhow, enough talk! GO SEE THE MOVIE! It should be available on iTunes soon I'm guessing as Bollywood movies generally have short theatre runs compared to Hollywood movies and are released on DVD within weeks rather than months!
Goa... You know what, I prefer Thai beaches. Maybe it was because of monsoon season, but for India's busiest beach area, it was pretty rundown. But, that didn't stop us from doing what we wanted... Relaxing and swimming in the ocean, although a bit choppy. BTW, when the monsoon is on, it's better to be in the water! Though, the best shower we had in Goa was when we got caught on the scooter in the monsoon!!! (Aside, the minivan I'm in right now almost hit two kids on a motorcycle that decided to turn in front of the oncoming minivan... Oh well, survival of the fittest.)
As it was monsoon season, a lot of businesses were packing up for the season and their owners heading off on holidays. And this didn't only mean padlocking the front door... It meant that the whole business disappeared, structure and all! One restaurant even demolished their brick clay oven! We were told that these business owners did not lease their land through the monsoon season and therefore had to leave the land bare. Day by day, another business had literally disappeared. This left only a handful of restaurants open, and we only liked two of them! It did make our personal Nepali waiter very happy when we showed up at the only open beachfront restaurant daily, or even twice or thrice daily!!! We were even the last customers that our guesthouse owner took before he flew to Europe the next day! Anyhow, it was a nice relaxing few days... But next time I'll head to Thailand for the beach!
Well, almost in Kep now... Will write again soon!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)