Hello all. I am in Koh Pang Nang (an island in the south of Thailand) for the full moon party. It is on May 1 and is not to be missed. So I am told. I came a couple of days early so I could get accommodation and it is a good thing as it was hard to find a room, let alone in my price range. I am in a bungalow on the beach that hosts the party. So good and close for the festivities. My hotel has a buffet dinner that night for all the guests. If you have not heard of the full moon party it is an excuse for the Thai’s to party each month and each year tens of thousands of travelers flock to Koh Pang Nang to experience the party on the beach.
It is raining and cloudy here and I am getting lots of reading in looking out onto the ocean. No sunbathing, but good rest and relaxation just the same.
I seem to have gotten over the worst of my bug and am back to eating which is a good thing. I still have a sinus cold though which I hope clears up soon so I can go diving in these lovely waters.
Monday, 30 April 2007
Friday, 27 April 2007
Thailand -Bangkok
I arrived in Bangkok the other day. It was an interesting ride and I am glad I had Kim with me to help me find where to stay. She has been here before and knew where to go from where the bus dropped us off. The trip from Siem Reap took 13 hours and started off on a rough road with many pot holes and a lot of dust. The road was not paved that we traveled on for the first 6 hours. The busses air conditioning was not working and the windows were open. By the time we made it to the boarder some of the people's white shirts were covered in red dirt. It would remind you of PEI with the red dirt. Once making it to the boarder, the boarder crossing was pretty dirty and nothing like the nice one between Vietnam and Cambodia. We had to walk through the boarder with our bags and then a ways to meet another bus. This bus was something. It was a double decker so you climb up and into the purple interior studded, mirrored ceiling bus, with great air conditioning. It was an interesting looking bus, it was very clean and cool, but reminded me of some cheesy bar or strip club with it's interior.
Day two in Bangkok resulted in me being sick in Bangkok, not sick of Bangkok but sick. I had to go to the Chinese Ambassy to get my VISA for there. I went by bus (old crappy one) and subway. It was a trec and people were so nice trying to help me get there. I finally got there waited and waited and then waited more when they said it could be ready in three hours. So I went to a food court and the smell of the food sent me to the bathroom. I thought I was going to throw up and I had it bad out the other end. So back to the Ambassy to wait in their lobby, I fell asleep and the guy says no sleeping as I was sitting on the stairs. I ended up vomiting all over their toilet and getting my visa. I took the subway back and then a bus. The bus was terrible. It was so hot and full of people and over an hour long in stop and go rush hour traffic. So I was a sight to not be seen. I vomited into a bag a couple of times and out the window a couple more times. I asked the ticket collector on the bus to tell me when to get off. So there is a tap on my shoulder and I stagger out of the bus, through the people to puke again this time on a tree, then another tree down the road. I was in terrible shape. I made it back to the room to see Kim off (she was going to the south on a 15 hour overnight bus) and visited the toilet many more times and called it a night. I did sleep not too bad and took it slow this morning to see where I was at. I ended up going to the Royal Palace which was beautiful with all it's ornate gold. That was all I could handle in the heat and I have not been sick today. Thank god. Anyway happy to not be puking.
Day two in Bangkok resulted in me being sick in Bangkok, not sick of Bangkok but sick. I had to go to the Chinese Ambassy to get my VISA for there. I went by bus (old crappy one) and subway. It was a trec and people were so nice trying to help me get there. I finally got there waited and waited and then waited more when they said it could be ready in three hours. So I went to a food court and the smell of the food sent me to the bathroom. I thought I was going to throw up and I had it bad out the other end. So back to the Ambassy to wait in their lobby, I fell asleep and the guy says no sleeping as I was sitting on the stairs. I ended up vomiting all over their toilet and getting my visa. I took the subway back and then a bus. The bus was terrible. It was so hot and full of people and over an hour long in stop and go rush hour traffic. So I was a sight to not be seen. I vomited into a bag a couple of times and out the window a couple more times. I asked the ticket collector on the bus to tell me when to get off. So there is a tap on my shoulder and I stagger out of the bus, through the people to puke again this time on a tree, then another tree down the road. I was in terrible shape. I made it back to the room to see Kim off (she was going to the south on a 15 hour overnight bus) and visited the toilet many more times and called it a night. I did sleep not too bad and took it slow this morning to see where I was at. I ended up going to the Royal Palace which was beautiful with all it's ornate gold. That was all I could handle in the heat and I have not been sick today. Thank god. Anyway happy to not be puking.
Tuesday, 24 April 2007
Angkor - Siem Reap Cambodia, Pictures
I have been visiting the Angkor temples in Siem Reap for the last couple of days. It was magnificent. There are so many temples and each one is different. They were made between 900 – 1100, I believe. Don’t quote me on that, a long time ago. It is hard to believe they could have made such fascinating buildings so long ago and today the country is in poverty. It is said that Cambodia was the center of the globe at that time. They think that the population around the temples was over a million people and London England was only 50 000 people.
They do have the tourist thing down though, when it comes to visiting the temples. The roadways between the temples are paved and tree lined. It is a gorgeous ride between them. The temples were spectacular. It was so relaxing walking around them and through the jungle in parts to get to them. I did not expect to be able to go into them, but you can climb all over them. Kim from South Africa and I visited them together. It was so much fun and we did a lot of climbing.
At one temple I was climbing down the narrow steep steps and ended up missing three steps. You should have heard the gasps from the people sitting below having a drink. It was funny, but not at the time. I landed on my feet thank god, but my heart was racing.
I highly recommend a visit to Siem Reap to visit the temples. They are spectacular. I think in the future you will not be able to tour around inside them, or climb on them. That was really cool. It was so much fun and good exercise and the heat, 40 degrees over here. Needless to say it was a hot, hot couple of days.
The pass to get into the temples was $40 for 2 or 3 days and $20 for one day. We rented a tuc, tuc to take us between the temples as they can be up to 30km’s apart and that cost us $15 each, for two days.
It was awesome visiting the magnificent temples. My favorite was Bayon. It had 56 towers with 216 faces “watching” over the people of Cambodia.
I took tons of pictures; check them out at the following link.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/AngkorSiemReapCambodia
They do have the tourist thing down though, when it comes to visiting the temples. The roadways between the temples are paved and tree lined. It is a gorgeous ride between them. The temples were spectacular. It was so relaxing walking around them and through the jungle in parts to get to them. I did not expect to be able to go into them, but you can climb all over them. Kim from South Africa and I visited them together. It was so much fun and we did a lot of climbing.
At one temple I was climbing down the narrow steep steps and ended up missing three steps. You should have heard the gasps from the people sitting below having a drink. It was funny, but not at the time. I landed on my feet thank god, but my heart was racing.
I highly recommend a visit to Siem Reap to visit the temples. They are spectacular. I think in the future you will not be able to tour around inside them, or climb on them. That was really cool. It was so much fun and good exercise and the heat, 40 degrees over here. Needless to say it was a hot, hot couple of days.
The pass to get into the temples was $40 for 2 or 3 days and $20 for one day. We rented a tuc, tuc to take us between the temples as they can be up to 30km’s apart and that cost us $15 each, for two days.
It was awesome visiting the magnificent temples. My favorite was Bayon. It had 56 towers with 216 faces “watching” over the people of Cambodia.
I took tons of pictures; check them out at the following link.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/AngkorSiemReapCambodia
Saturday, 21 April 2007
Link to all pictures
You can look at the photo albums at anytime by going to the following link. You may want to save it to your favorites and then you can look back at any of the photos, instead of searching through the blogs for specific albums. This takes you to them all.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney
Kampot Cambodia - pictures
Well it’s been an adventurous few days. Kim from South Africa and I are still traveling together and we went to Kampot and we are now in Siem Reap, both are places in Cambodia.
We went from Sihanoukville to Kampot via a shared taxi. That is the only way to get there. Busses do not travel there and the train that is suppose to go there, the locals won’t even take. We were told it would pick us up at 9:30 am. It was late and then we went to another guesthouse to pick up three people for the two hour ride. We waited at this guesthouse for over 45 minutes, with the driver telling us, “10 more minutes, 10 more minutes.” Finally I went into the guesthouse and asked what room the people were in. I went to their room and asked what time they had been told, 11 am. I said we were told 9:30 and had been waiting. So about 11:15 and we hit the road. Only to stop at the local market and have the driver attempt to get another person in the taxi. The taxi was a 1980 Toyota Corolla that seats five people at home, but four in the back seat here and three in the front. One straddling the gear shift is no problem. I was in the back and took advantage of the seat beat that was still there and squished in with the other three in the back.
We made it to Kampot, a rural area on the river. It was great. A true Cambodian town, not many tourists and the downtown was very old and dilapidated. The guesthouse we stayed at was awesome. We had a bungalow on the river with three walls ($8 a night). Where the forth wall should have been was open to the river. There were no locks on any of the rooms in the place. It was interesting. It was a very relaxing place. The bungalow was floating in the river on those blue plastic barrels we have at home and also use to make rafts. We had a mosquito net over our beds. It was a great room; we could roll out of bed and jump in the river, which was a salt water river. There were a lot of people hanging out at this place relaxing in the hammocks, reading and swimming. They also had a speed boat and you could go tubing.
You go to Kampot to see Bokor National Park and Bohdi Villa’s where we stayed. We went to town and signed up to go to Bokor National Park with a company that would pick us up at 8 am the next day. We waited again until 8:45 am and a guy came by on his motorbike and asked what company we were waiting for? He said, oh this company is sh**.” Well he was right. They picked us up in a truck full of people. We were in the cab, which turned out to be a good thing as there was something to hang on to and a little cushioning as we climbed the mountain to a deserted village. The village is part of the National Park. With the $5 each person pays to get into the park they could use it to fix the road. It is a terrible road. It is so rough. Picture the worst farm road or cottage road you have been down in Canada and multiple it by ten.
The truck broke down and we tried to walk to the top. Our “English” speaking guide did not speak much English. So we walked up this terrible road for over an hour then stopped and waited for three hours. We were told the truck would be fixed in an hour and a half and that it would meet us. It never came, so we started to walk down. We passed the truck and there was no way that would be fixed anytime soon. You can look at a picture to verify this. So we had to walk down the mountain. It took six hours and no truck came to pick us up. Once making it to the bottom we had to pay to take a taxi back to town. It is also the hottest month of the year in Cambodia with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius. We were dirty, hot, sore and thirsty. So the next scam, 10 of us have to climb into this taxi, again a 1980’s Toyota Corolla and he charges us $1 U.S. each.
Once getting to town and complaining with the company they gave us our money back for the tour, but we had to pay the taxi. The guy said he was sending a car and the guide told him not to come. I am sure the guide was in on the taxi money. As the guide got in a car on the walk down and went to the bottom making us walk. He was to be going to get us a vehicle, but no.
So people discussed our situation with the park and they were going to honour our admission the next day. There is a separate entrance fee on top of the tour to take you to the top.
Day two of trying to make it to Bokor National Park resulted in a different company and another break down.
Three quarters of the way up you could walk part of the trail. Three of us decided we walked enough yesterday and had seen enough of the jungle and we would take the truck up. They stopped to let the people out and shut off the one truck. It would not restart. They attempted to jump start it by rolling it backwards, on the side of the mountain, with us in the back. We yelled stop as it was going over the side of the cliff and we jumped out, when they did not stop. People following us in their car tried to help and the one truck towed the other for a while with black smoke billowing out of the engine on the lead truck. I ended up playing “go fish” with Mija and Katrina from Denmark and Cambodian children that were in the other vehicles while we waited for them to fix the vehicle.
Four hours it took to get up the mountain to the disserted village. It was a happening town in the 60’s but after the war in the 70’s it is in ruins. It is suppose to be haunted. Once making it finally to the top the heavens opened up and it POURED rain. Luckily we were under a sun shelter. It stopped and left a fog around the area, creating a spooky feel. There was a Casino/Hotel, Catholic Church, school and other buildings to check out. It was neat, but seems like a lot of effort to get there and a ton of wear and tear on those vehicles. I would not want to be the guy that has to drive up there every day. The day ended with a boat cruise down the river and a free beer on the boat, as we did not get to go to the waterfall (part of the tour) as it is dry at this time of year.
Kim and I took the bus from Kampot to Siem Reap at 7 am. It had a stop in Phnom Penh for an hour and a half. You could buy a ticket to Phnom Penh and then another to Siem Reap. We bought a ticket straight though to save the hassle once we got to the bus terminal. A good thing as the bus was over sold and we would have had to stay another day in Phnom Penh. So guess what two seats were over sold. Seat five and six, our seats, as they give you assigned seats. They wanted us to get off, but we showed our tickets and we were early and sitting in the seats when the others came. We made it luckily to Siem Reap. We had just said, well it looks like this is working out as we questioned if we would have problems with a ticket from another town. But it worked out and we made it in at 8 pm. A long travel day, 13 hours by bus. My ears were sore as the guy was laying on the horn the whole way. If you watched the road, it looked like we were going to hit every dog, cow, motorcycle or other vehicle in our path. He was insane.
Taking in the walking sites around town today and found a lovely park with nice gardens. We are going to Angkor tomorrow to see the temples. They look beautiful. If you have time search Angkor on the internet.
Click on the following link for pictures, or copy the link and paste it into the browser as clicking on it may not work this time.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/KampotCambodia
We went from Sihanoukville to Kampot via a shared taxi. That is the only way to get there. Busses do not travel there and the train that is suppose to go there, the locals won’t even take. We were told it would pick us up at 9:30 am. It was late and then we went to another guesthouse to pick up three people for the two hour ride. We waited at this guesthouse for over 45 minutes, with the driver telling us, “10 more minutes, 10 more minutes.” Finally I went into the guesthouse and asked what room the people were in. I went to their room and asked what time they had been told, 11 am. I said we were told 9:30 and had been waiting. So about 11:15 and we hit the road. Only to stop at the local market and have the driver attempt to get another person in the taxi. The taxi was a 1980 Toyota Corolla that seats five people at home, but four in the back seat here and three in the front. One straddling the gear shift is no problem. I was in the back and took advantage of the seat beat that was still there and squished in with the other three in the back.
We made it to Kampot, a rural area on the river. It was great. A true Cambodian town, not many tourists and the downtown was very old and dilapidated. The guesthouse we stayed at was awesome. We had a bungalow on the river with three walls ($8 a night). Where the forth wall should have been was open to the river. There were no locks on any of the rooms in the place. It was interesting. It was a very relaxing place. The bungalow was floating in the river on those blue plastic barrels we have at home and also use to make rafts. We had a mosquito net over our beds. It was a great room; we could roll out of bed and jump in the river, which was a salt water river. There were a lot of people hanging out at this place relaxing in the hammocks, reading and swimming. They also had a speed boat and you could go tubing.
You go to Kampot to see Bokor National Park and Bohdi Villa’s where we stayed. We went to town and signed up to go to Bokor National Park with a company that would pick us up at 8 am the next day. We waited again until 8:45 am and a guy came by on his motorbike and asked what company we were waiting for? He said, oh this company is sh**.” Well he was right. They picked us up in a truck full of people. We were in the cab, which turned out to be a good thing as there was something to hang on to and a little cushioning as we climbed the mountain to a deserted village. The village is part of the National Park. With the $5 each person pays to get into the park they could use it to fix the road. It is a terrible road. It is so rough. Picture the worst farm road or cottage road you have been down in Canada and multiple it by ten.
The truck broke down and we tried to walk to the top. Our “English” speaking guide did not speak much English. So we walked up this terrible road for over an hour then stopped and waited for three hours. We were told the truck would be fixed in an hour and a half and that it would meet us. It never came, so we started to walk down. We passed the truck and there was no way that would be fixed anytime soon. You can look at a picture to verify this. So we had to walk down the mountain. It took six hours and no truck came to pick us up. Once making it to the bottom we had to pay to take a taxi back to town. It is also the hottest month of the year in Cambodia with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius. We were dirty, hot, sore and thirsty. So the next scam, 10 of us have to climb into this taxi, again a 1980’s Toyota Corolla and he charges us $1 U.S. each.
Once getting to town and complaining with the company they gave us our money back for the tour, but we had to pay the taxi. The guy said he was sending a car and the guide told him not to come. I am sure the guide was in on the taxi money. As the guide got in a car on the walk down and went to the bottom making us walk. He was to be going to get us a vehicle, but no.
So people discussed our situation with the park and they were going to honour our admission the next day. There is a separate entrance fee on top of the tour to take you to the top.
Day two of trying to make it to Bokor National Park resulted in a different company and another break down.
Three quarters of the way up you could walk part of the trail. Three of us decided we walked enough yesterday and had seen enough of the jungle and we would take the truck up. They stopped to let the people out and shut off the one truck. It would not restart. They attempted to jump start it by rolling it backwards, on the side of the mountain, with us in the back. We yelled stop as it was going over the side of the cliff and we jumped out, when they did not stop. People following us in their car tried to help and the one truck towed the other for a while with black smoke billowing out of the engine on the lead truck. I ended up playing “go fish” with Mija and Katrina from Denmark and Cambodian children that were in the other vehicles while we waited for them to fix the vehicle.
Four hours it took to get up the mountain to the disserted village. It was a happening town in the 60’s but after the war in the 70’s it is in ruins. It is suppose to be haunted. Once making it finally to the top the heavens opened up and it POURED rain. Luckily we were under a sun shelter. It stopped and left a fog around the area, creating a spooky feel. There was a Casino/Hotel, Catholic Church, school and other buildings to check out. It was neat, but seems like a lot of effort to get there and a ton of wear and tear on those vehicles. I would not want to be the guy that has to drive up there every day. The day ended with a boat cruise down the river and a free beer on the boat, as we did not get to go to the waterfall (part of the tour) as it is dry at this time of year.
Kim and I took the bus from Kampot to Siem Reap at 7 am. It had a stop in Phnom Penh for an hour and a half. You could buy a ticket to Phnom Penh and then another to Siem Reap. We bought a ticket straight though to save the hassle once we got to the bus terminal. A good thing as the bus was over sold and we would have had to stay another day in Phnom Penh. So guess what two seats were over sold. Seat five and six, our seats, as they give you assigned seats. They wanted us to get off, but we showed our tickets and we were early and sitting in the seats when the others came. We made it luckily to Siem Reap. We had just said, well it looks like this is working out as we questioned if we would have problems with a ticket from another town. But it worked out and we made it in at 8 pm. A long travel day, 13 hours by bus. My ears were sore as the guy was laying on the horn the whole way. If you watched the road, it looked like we were going to hit every dog, cow, motorcycle or other vehicle in our path. He was insane.
Taking in the walking sites around town today and found a lovely park with nice gardens. We are going to Angkor tomorrow to see the temples. They look beautiful. If you have time search Angkor on the internet.
Click on the following link for pictures, or copy the link and paste it into the browser as clicking on it may not work this time.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/KampotCambodia
Sunday, 15 April 2007
Sihanoukville - Cambodia
I am currently in the beach town of Sihanoukville Cambodia. It is not what I expected. There are lots of Westerners settled here and a lot of Cambodians visiting the beach as it is their Khmer New Year. They celebrate for days, so it has been really interesting watching them enjoy the holidays. They celebrate by having continuously large water fights and powder fights, with talcum powder. There are beach areas that are just packed. Close to our accommodation is not packed, which is nice. I am staying with Kim from South Africa and we are a two minute walk from the beach. We are staying in a bungalow for $8 a night. It is up $2 a night because of the New Year, inflation!!
I have been hanging out on the beach reading, taking in the sunshine, waves and people. Tomorrow we are going on a boat trip to three islands and snorkeling for $10. It includes the boat trip, breakfast, lunch, fruit, soft drinks, three islands and snorkeling at each of the islands. Good value.
This town is really interesting, not what I expected. You can even stay here for free. There is a dorm guesthouse across the road that offers free accommodation. It is a room with huge bunk beds. There were 17 mattresses on the bottom and then the same on top. I am sure not much sleeping goes on there, as it is also a happening bar. That coincidently had a free dinner last night. They were passing out flyers saying come for free dinner. We went and it was great, rice, curry, pasta, garlic bread, crazy. I guess they were making their money off the drinks, which were for example $1 for a draft beer.
I have been hanging out on the beach reading, taking in the sunshine, waves and people. Tomorrow we are going on a boat trip to three islands and snorkeling for $10. It includes the boat trip, breakfast, lunch, fruit, soft drinks, three islands and snorkeling at each of the islands. Good value.
This town is really interesting, not what I expected. You can even stay here for free. There is a dorm guesthouse across the road that offers free accommodation. It is a room with huge bunk beds. There were 17 mattresses on the bottom and then the same on top. I am sure not much sleeping goes on there, as it is also a happening bar. That coincidently had a free dinner last night. They were passing out flyers saying come for free dinner. We went and it was great, rice, curry, pasta, garlic bread, crazy. I guess they were making their money off the drinks, which were for example $1 for a draft beer.
Thursday, 12 April 2007
Phnom Penh - Children's Center - pictures
I went to the "Hopeful of Children Center" yesterday. It is a center for disadvantaged kids, some are orphans, others parents can not care for them. They may have HIV or work for very little money and can not care for their children. Some of them were also living alone on the street. There was one little boy, who looked three years old but is eight and was living on the street. His parents worked at the market and were going to get the food to sell and were killed in the middle of the night. This little boy was living on the street, begging for money and food, but the bigger kids would steal his money.
The center is run my a crippled Cambodian man, who himself lived in a center. He has started this on his own and depends only on donations to keep it going. He had such a spirit and was so great with the kids. Twelve kids live at the center and around 40 joined us to play from the neighbourhood. They come there so they are not in the street or fields during the day while their parents are working. We celebrated the Khmer New Year with them and played games together from 9am - 3pm.
He provides food, clothing and education to the kids. It cost him around $600 - $700 a month to run the center. If you want more info his email is kimny2005@yahoo.com
Click on the following for pictures of the Khemer New Years celebrations at the Center.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/PhnomPenh
The center is run my a crippled Cambodian man, who himself lived in a center. He has started this on his own and depends only on donations to keep it going. He had such a spirit and was so great with the kids. Twelve kids live at the center and around 40 joined us to play from the neighbourhood. They come there so they are not in the street or fields during the day while their parents are working. We celebrated the Khmer New Year with them and played games together from 9am - 3pm.
He provides food, clothing and education to the kids. It cost him around $600 - $700 a month to run the center. If you want more info his email is kimny2005@yahoo.com
Click on the following for pictures of the Khemer New Years celebrations at the Center.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/PhnomPenh
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