Brunty/Concorde/Beaky

For those of you who know him, we met up with David this week (and his rather attractive girlfriend Hanh). Hanh also 'did' Anna's hair.....thanks Hanh!

Caveman

A few Whale Island Photos to whet your appetite while we decide what to write!

Whale Island was a truely beautiful place but not without it's pitfalls! For insrtance the scorpian shown above was on our bathroom wall! It was quite exciting though! Emma was confronted by a 3 metre bright green snake which rased it's head preparing to strike.....sorry no photos of that!

We will write more soon!

Simon

Toilet Terrors

We thought that we needed to write a blog about the toilets of Asia, just so you can apprieciate it and hopefully have a little giggle.

Toilet 001.
‘Alice and Wonderland’
In Cambodia, on one of the many car journeys we took, (this one I think was from Phnom Penh, to Sihanoukville) we had stopped at a restaurant to eat. I don’t know where we were but we were hungry & tired.
I went to the toilet. It was… small. The wall tiles were black & white, and I couldn’t stand up properly. I had to tilt my head! It felt like the scene in Alice and Wonderland where the room got smaller and smaller. When I came out of the toilet I went to look in the mirror and I couldn’t. All I could see was my neck down. It really helped my self confidence… Finally, as I crouched out of the toilet door a waiter walked past, looked at me with the tilted head and just simply stated, ‘Wow.’

Toilet 002.
‘Sandy Hole’
In Sihanoukville we had a lovely day at the beach. We found a bar upon which a northern English man owed. The toilet was at the back of the bar, it was basically a wooden shack. As you walked in, all it was was a hole in the floor, a car mirror and a bowl and jug of water, so, you can, erm… how do you put this politely? … look at your bum while cleaning! Ha ha.

Toilet 003.
‘Swipe to Wipe’
Before we got onto the night train to Na Trang, Dad & Joe went to the toilet. You had to pay 3000 dong. [V.Little] So, I suppose if you didn’t have cash you would have had to use your credit card!

Toilet 004.
‘Metallic Moony’
Now, this one was bad. I think we can all rate this one the worst of the bunch. On the train there was a wonderful toilet. Aluminium everywhere, a window, some toilet paper and a whole right in the middle. It’s alright for men! Except, they couldn’t have found it too easy as there was wee all over the floor, and I’m sure while travelliing by villages, people saw one or two bottoms…


Toilet 005.
‘Wishey Washy’
On another car journey Jo needed the loo so she hopped out in a village. It was apparently very dirty, with a hole in the floor, the usual jug and bowl of water & no where to wash your hands. Lovely.

Toilet 006.
‘Camellia Crap’
In our hotel in Hanoi, a lovely hotel, (well, bog standard…) our bathroom stinks. When you have a bath and remove the plug, the drain next to the toilet fills up and floods the toilet. Also, whenever you flush, the room smells of sewage. Once again, a lovely, lovely hotel.

Anna

Our first open water sea dive

Finally we had decided to go for a dive in one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. It was really nerve racking the night before we left because it was going to be our first open water dive in the sea. Lots of thoughts were being put into this to see if it was worth doing and if we were brave enough to go. As you already know we are travelling with our friend Jo who is an experienced diver and I think she as caught the scuba diving bug and she was waiting for this moment since the day we left for Bangkok, so she was ready to go.

Right, the morning of the dive, it was 6:45am and we were getting up to have breakfast, get ready for the dive, and get on the boat that would be leaving at 7:30am. On the boat it was starting to get seriously nerve racking as we approached the dive site and were kitting up. The 1st dive was the better of the two but it still wasn’t an unbelievable dive, dad and I where buddies while Jo and Anna buddied up. Our dive master was a young guy called Duc. The dive was like an under water dessert it wasn’t the most beautiful dive in the world but still a great dive. As a junior diver (because I’m under 16) I’m only allowed legally to dive to eighteen metres, we mainly went up to a max. of sixteen. Our second dive didn’t have as much coral (but nor did the 1st but the 1st still had more) but was more scenic with rocks that went up and down all the time. Anna didn’t feel like diving this time so we went down without her. Dad is quite heavy on his air on finished on 40 odd bar every dive (bar being the measurement for the air) and he came up early on the first and third dive. Duc our dive master is great, he showed us lots of coral and other underwater stuff. We saw scorpion fish, Lion fish, angel fish and all sorts of soft and hard coral.

Our next dives were 2 days after the first dives. Anna didn’t join us on the second day so it was only dad, Jo, and me who went. While dad and I buddied up and dived with Duc and a bloke called James, Jo went down with an Italian couple and the dive instructor Christian. This dive wasn’t good at all! Dad had been under weighted so his buoyancy was every where and he couldn’t equalize his ears so he was going up and down all the time, because he was like this I stared to panic for him so we went up and let Duc and James continue on a deeper dive.

For the fourth dive, dad’s ears were too painful so he stayed on the boat. I therefore dived for the first time without any family members. I buddied with Jo and we went down with Duc. I felt more comfortable with Jo, as I knew her, I did not really want to dive with James. I ascended with dad watching on. The first part of the dive was a bit poor, the visibility was not too good, the colours were not there, and it was not very pretty. However as we moved on the coral improved, as did the colours and the fish. We saw an array of soft and hard coral. We were allowed to touch two types of soft coral; the first like a big ball with red soft coral growing to about an inch, we stroked this lovely soft coral, it felt like a mixture of silk and fleece. The second piece looked like a small tree coloured like a pastel yellow, and it stood on a rock on its own away from everything else. This had a nice soft touch to it like the other red coral. We stayed at a nice comfortable depth of around seven metres when the coral got seriously beautiful. There to big rocks that had moved together and formed a small one man tunnel - I’d heard of it before and felt it nervous about it but luckily when we got up to it I was fine - it was probably just over 2 lengths of me and it went quite dark and the water was almost hot. We went in one at a time with Duc at the front, me in the middle and Jo at the end. When we came out the Vis got surprisingly better and the coral was absolutely amazing. There was almost too much too see as I looked around in absolute disbelief as the fish swam around us!! As we approached a small canyon I spotted a little clown fish and as Anna had found out when she was snorkelling they are really playful, so I wiggled my finger near it and it swam round me and spiralled round my arm! It was amazing but as a swam on Jo saw it after me and tried to play with it but the clown fish just blanked her and swam back to his coral. It’s hard to write about this because it was so good. We swam over a rock that had flat hard coral and it was like the town in Finding Nemo it was great! Duc also found a cuttel fish with is like a squidy octipussy thing, so that was good. Sadly the dive came to an end as my air tank was slowly emptying so we came up after a stonking 50-minute dive, and saw a very anxious dad on the side of the boat. After the dive I couldn’t stop talking about the dive and Jo had diagnosed me with the Diving Bug that she as also got herself. This terrible Bug gets you addicted to diving.

So as I’m writing this as I’m diving

Unfortunately we couldn’t find a waterproof case for the laptop, so I won’t be able to publish this blog as the water has damaged the laptop! (I don’t think dad will be happy about that)


See you all soon

Joe

Night train to Nha Trang

We are on a night train from HCMC to Nha Trang. Can I just say – I am lying down on a bed, or should a say an ironing board with about half a metre of space between me and the ceiling. There are 5 other beds in this space where we would not normally fit a toilet. It’s not pleasant. Luckily my bed is just about long enough for me to lie down. Cockroaches are everywhere. Jo is hysterical, she has a roach phobia, and is threatening to run down the corridor ripping her clothes off screaming, Joe is very concerned about this thought and has decided to stop thinking. He is drinking beer instead. The train trundles along occasionally. Usually though it is stopped. When it stops, it stops immediately, causing everyone to end up jammed towards the front of the train – or in Mum’s case, slammed against the wall of the shared toilet (which in itself is a hole in the floor leading directly onto the tracks – there may be an East Asian toilet blog appearing imminently!). We are settling down for the night….good night, sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite!

Love from Anna xxxx

After a strange night where, at about 2.30am, Jo did enact her threat and having calmed down proceeded to enter every cabin in an effort to find ours. The beds were hard (described very accurately as ‘hard sleepers’. The roaches were plentiful and the sleeping bag liners were a life saver. At the end of our eventual 11 hour journey there were spectacular views across Vietnamese plains with stunning mountains as a backdrop. On arrival at the station a taxi driver awaited us with a sign stating, ‘Mr. Simon’, we climbed aboard and headed for Whale Island. The journey consisted of sleep and grossly exaggerated stories of hoe little each of us had slept on the train – each of us adults claiming to have been awake all night watching others sleep. I did receive an apology from Jo for pouring water on me and for flicking roaches from her bunk, middle, onto mine, bottom. No-one else would sleep at the bottom for fear of being roached! Joe is traumatised from Jo’s display in the corridor. I am concerned that he is in a catatonic state….or maybe he is just sleeping.

Our first views of Whale Island leave us jaw-droppingly astonished. It actually looks better than in the pictures! More of that later after 5 days of bliss with no internet connection!!

Over the border into Vietnam.

Having spent 2 weeks in Cambodia, it was time to move on. We had considered flying to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon to everyone here), but decided to go overland as we had agreed a good deal. The deal was very clear, we would be driven to the border in a minibus, meet a Vietnamese driver and minibus, transfer our baggage to a new minibus and continue on our journey to Ho Chi Minh. Simple.

Unfortunately, we have travel guides. These books are generally very good but we have noticed that they tend to exaggerate negatives. Our books describe great difficulties in crossing overland borders involving unscrupulous financial transactions (bribes to you and me), men having to offer cigarettes to the male guards and waiting for hours before being waved through. They pretty much say that you can only get to Vietnam by flying unless you specified ‘land entry’ when applying for your visa. We had no such entry specified. In fact we had not talked about any form of entry (well not in public anyway!).

Due to a number of factors, namely adventure and experience, but probably with a bit of Yorkshire prudence thrown in (well the journey overland cost only $5 more per head than the airport departure tax…that’s without the cost of the flight) and the fact that our hotel manager explained that he would sort it all out, including the bribes, we took the scary option!

The journey to the border took us through countryside very similar to that previously described, although the quality of the road was so poor we could not travel very quickly. We also had the excitement of a car ferry across the Mekong, which was reminiscent of the Woolwich ferry, the Mekong being slightly wider. The excitement did include being hassled whilst in the queue by people selling everything, very assertively. This caused a bit of concern by some people in our van and a bit of amusement from Simon, Emma and Joe. Joe managed to buy a pair of designer Adidas sunglasses for a whopping $1, bartered down from $5…..quality! Choosing not to buy any food, we travelled on (though I do now have a taste for deep fried bugs).

Reaching the Vietnamese border, the fun commenced. We arrived at customs and emptied our minibus, the cases being whisked away onto mopeds and driven off. We were guided to passport control as we watched our cases disappear, some of us panicking and wondering whether we would see them again!

Passport control was a breeze, we only needed to complete about 10 forms each and pay 1000 Riel each (about 25 US cents - and we still do not know for what). But no departure tax (that’s $20 each saved)! We went through the x-ray machines and came out the other side after being through only 6 officials each, fairly unscathed until Jo decided to buy herself a litre of vodka. 6 photocopies of passport, forms completed and 45 minutes later Jo emerged (after scrounging $20 from me because she had stuffed her money down her bra to prevent her from having to pay bribes(???!!)), we were in Vietnam.

Waiting for us were our cases, loaded precariously onto a variety of mopeds. There were in fact many mopeds and absolutely no nice, large, air conditioned mini buses. 3 gesticulating Vietnamese men communicated adequately enough for us to realise that we needed to climb aboard with our (very large) suitcases, hand baggage, computer and camera bag. So there we were then, Emma and Anna on one, Jo on another (with a case), me on the next (hand luggage, pute and hands full of water bottles) all screeching off down what appeared to be a long and dusty runway leaving. As far as I was concerned, we had left Joe behind mounting another bike. Racing (apparently) down this dusty road, dodging the odd runaway cow, we arrived at a little shack….still no van. I dismounted and looked behind for Joe who arrived grinning wider than a proverbial Cheshire cat and looking seriously cool with his windswept golden locks and expensive looking shades with Emma shouting behind me, ‘we won the race’.

Gathered together again, a large taxi appeared. Having placed all of our luggage and all of us inside (no mean feat I can tell you) a group of Vietnamese stood outside the cab arguing, one approached me asking for money for the ride from the border to Saigon. I assertively informed them that we had paid for this in Phnom Penh whilst thinking ‘if this is all we have to pay extra, it is still cheaper than flying,’ they did however accept my assertion and off we went to finish our journey to HCMC.

Our initial reaction to Vietnam was that there appeared to be much less poverty, there was more electricity, the road smoother, more hi tech, ‘proper’ houses and there were millions and millions of scooters! These reactions continued to be validated. HCMC is a much more developed city very similar to pictures I have seen of modern East Asian cities such as Singapore. All the normal neon lights and electronic company names were in abundance. Anna breathed a sigh of relief. We all stared amazed at the distant smog and the rows and rows of bikes waiting for the traffic lights to turn green. HCMC is busy, very busy, and very hot, but remains ordered and somehow polite.

Our first targeted hotel was The Grand, fully booked, we moved onto the much less grand Linh hotel, which was absolutely fine. Checked in, flaked out on the bed, we sighed with satisfaction at the realisation that we had completed a difficult journey with relative ease. Trust your locals, not your travel guide!

Simon

The hotel was fine, and we were grateful for a bed, worried that there may have been a lack of vacancies in this bustling city. Jo and Anna chose the 5th floor, thinking there was a lift – unfortunately this was not the case, but their calf muscles are now highly developed, not to mention the poor porter who ran up the stairs with our cases on his shoulders, to our relief not all at once!

We were tired and hungry so headed out into HCMC. It was bizarre that even though we only knew a few Cambodian words, we did not even know the Vietnamese for ‘thank you’ We ended up having a mediocre Thai meal, and then went for coffee and cake at a coffee shop. How civilised is that!! Think we were all in bed by about 9pm, tired and happy.

Emma

Hi, My name is Dustbin Collins....

DUSTBIN TRAVELS TO NEW ZEALAND

Hi, my name is Dustbin Collins or ‘DC’ for short. I have been sneaked into Anna’s luggage by some of her friends who did not want me any more. I have at last been able to get on line and hijack part of the Lowe’s blog site for myself.
At first I was very sad and lonely. I felt discarded and unwanted. Inadvertently however, Lucy and Ellie have given me an opportunity that I am relishing. Anna is a very kind young woman, who has cared for me brilliantly. She is beautiful and caring and has been like a sister to me. Anna’s family have also accepted me into their fold as if I were a long lost cousin.

Initially scared of flying, I soon overcame my phobia, with love and attention that I did not and would not have received from Ellie and Lucy. I am not bitter and I guess in some way I do miss them.

As you can see from my photos below, I am having a great time, the flights were good, the hotels are great. I did feel a little nauseous after drinking all of those spirits. As you can see though I still ensured that I was protected.

I must just say that although Anna is having lots of fun out here in Asia…and she is looking forward to New Zealand, she has told me that she really, really misses her friends and of course her beloved Topshop. She talks to me a lot and I think that helps her sort out her confusion. She is very brave and she is really looking forward to having loads of her friends visit her.

I hope you like all of my pictures. I especially thought the snorkelling one was good. Please do not laugh at me too much when you see me climbing out of the laundry basket, I had drunk a little too much!

Bye bye for now, please leave me some comments! I need to go as we have just arrived in Hanoi after 5 days in Whale Island.....I think Simon Emma, Anna and Joe will be leaving blogs soon!

Love DC. xxxxx

Sihanoukville 11.09.06....plus more

Sihanoukville 11.09.06

Today we were due to set off from Phnom Penh (recently discovered as being pronounced: nom pen) having just experienced a most incredible monsoon rain. But first……….

The rain was so hard that within 20 minutes the roads were like rivers. Emma and I took a chance to walk to the launderette and became almost cut off. Emma stayed under cover while I ventured out into the middle of the road, where the water was a mere 30” deep, and waded through a crossroad junction endeavouring to reach my destination before watching my flip flop rise to the surface and float off down the road. With a large bag of dirty knickers clutched to my chest, I set of in pursuit of the flip flop. With huge amounts of encouragement and laughter from locals (who, quite sensibly, were remaining under cover waiting for the rain to cease). I retrieved the escaping flip flop with accompanying cheers of approval and managed to regain my route to the launderette without further ado.

Getting back to our journey…….with landscape remaining the continuation of extreme flatness for miles and miles, broken by the occasional ramshackled village and row of stilted houses, we approached the coast. The distant horizon was interrupted by bumpy things. Described on the map as Elephant Mountains, the large hillocks reached the soaring height of 920m above sea level – beyond the limits even of Misters I’Anson and Trevedi (www.bikehigh.com)! (Can anyone please remind us when a hill becomes a mountain? Is it height alone or does a hill require a certain amount of ‘cragginess’ ?(any reference to maternal grandparent not intended)).

Approaching the bumps ensured a change in weather from general cloudiness to general raininess. Driving straight to our hotel without passage through a main town, we checked in and decided what to do.

Joe and I headed for the beaches, eyeing a pontoon off which we intended to jump. The ‘girls’, clearly not wanting to be stereotyped, disappeared to town hoping to gain some retail therapy.

Our initial opinion of the beach was ‘ugh, minging’. However as we continued to walk, we moved away from the beach front hotels (the probable cause of the mingingness) onto lovely sand and tasteful beach front bars. Avoiding most of the inevitable ‘you buy bracelet from me’ rush, possibly due to our gender, Joe and I settled into some lovely swimming and remarkably cheap beach front drinks. Simon


Meanwhile, us ‘girls’ went into ‘downtown’ Sihanoukville. This is Cambodia’s premier coastal resort. However, the important bit is that it is still Cambodia. The market was really quite depressing, very dirty. The road and pavement kind of melted into one, with red dust and mud everywhere. Not what we had expected. We walked up the road, our driver, Paol, saying he would wait for us. Lots of the Cambodians were openly staring at us, some giggling behind their hands, and we were certainly the only westerners around. We walked on past our van, but Paol must have thought that we had missed him as he shortly drove up next to us. As we were feeling more than a bit out of our depth, we relented and accepted a lift back to the hotel. On the way back, we stopped where the ‘boys’ had been dropped off and found only the ‘minging’ beach mentioned above, so returned to base for some air conditioned R and R, to wait for the boys and prepare for dinner! Emma

Following our swim and general relaxation, at exactly 5.30pm a whole flotilla of small fishing vessels left the nearby port. The boats headed off in two separate directions each line playing ‘follow the leader’. As the last boat disappeared into the horizon, the sun started to set. The sky slowly lit into a huge and most spectacular bonfire. This was a true extravaganza of colours. A full range of yellows, oranges and reds surrounded Joe and me. We decided that the best place to view the sunset would be from the water. Wading into the sea, we stood and watched as the constant changes in colours lit us up and bounced of the clouds. Remaining in the warm and refreshing South China sea, we waited until most of the light had gone before wading to the beach, drying and heading off back to the hotel to rinse the salty and unusually sticky ocean from us. simon

That evening we ate at a beach-front restaurant. It looked quite full at first, but we then realised that this was because there were so many staff there. Many of the hotels and restaurants here are absolutely huge… and empty. We are here in the rainy season and can only assume that it gets much busier here in the tourist season. Our hotel can be a little spooky it is so large and silent.

One of our ethical dilemmas, as we have touched on before, is that our driver is constantly around, either driving us exactly where we like or waiting for us to need him. Our understanding, given the lack of common language, is that he sleeps in the van. We could see him from our bedroom window, just sitting. This is something we are obviously not comfortable with, yet also need to be aware of cultural differences etc etc… Simon spoke to the reception staff here who speak English. They do not provide accommodation for drivers here, the expectation clearly being that the driver sleep in the van and use the hotel staff facilities for showering. It is clear the employed staff work 12 hours a day, 7 days per week, with no leave. The upshot of all this is that for $20 we have paid for our driver to have a room and food for 3 nights. He is very pleased. The first day he said that he just slept all day, because he could! We are very pleased too as we hope that this is more comfortable for him and it appeases our western middle class guilt. Emma


Tuesday 12th September

I woke to a sound of rain. (Well, if I was going to be detailed, I actually woke to the sound of Mum calling me to get up!) I just hoped it was the sound of the AC… I opened the curtains and staring at me was a bloody monsoon. From that moment on I was really down and annoyed.
We all went to breakfast depressed. We had lots of trouble ordering food. Firstly, all on offer were basically noodles & chicken. Not particularly what our bellies wanted at that time in the morning! So, I ordered toast, but received a small bagette. I was so hungry & ate it anyway! Moreover, Jo had lots of trouble ordering a coffee. (She is diabetic and all of the milk that they serve here seems to be sweetened!). Anna

What we had seen so far of Sihanoukville so far had not been what we had hoped and I think this emphasised any homesick feelings were are having. I was getting tired of just eating rice and vegetables for every meal. Anna and Joe were wishing for Tesco’s eggs cooked by Dad! Even Simon I think was struggling a little bit…….also, it was absolutely pouring with rain and we had come here for some beach time Emma

After breakfast our driver Paol took us to a Diving Centre to check it out. It didn’t look good. The visibility was down to 10 metres and the dives appeared too deep for us novices.

Simon and Joe were very enthusiastic about the beach they had found the day before so, despite the weather, we went anyway. Luckily the rain had stopped, however, there wasn’t much sun. It was warmer than any English beach though!


As soon as we placed our things down on some deck chairs we were swamped with Cambodian girls [apparently 18 years old, but as they are so tiny, they looked no older than 13] they were selling bracelets, fruit, manicures, pedicures and much more. I think all of us spent about $5 in 5 minutes! I immediately brought a few bracelets, whilst watching Mum deciding on three names so the girls can make bracelets with names on. She asked for 3 as 3 girls offered to do her one and once she asked for one they were saying ‘What about me? I make you one?’
All the while Dad was looking at food, ordering drinks & taking pictures while Joe was getting changed ready for a swim!
I slid off to see Jo who was sitting down with yet more Cambodian girls round her. She was buying bracelets and getting a manicure done. I, noticing this, asked the woman if she could give me a Pedicure afterwards!

While I was having my pedicure, there was about 6 young women, 2 adults [their mothers I think] and two little toddlers. [Who were probably about 10….!] By the time I’d had a conversation with them all they were singing Black Eyed Peas, I was holding two bracelets while two people could carry on making them , one of the kids were leaning over my knee showing me her giraffe cuddly toy [ironic?] and I was still having my pedicure! Whoever said women can’t multi task?!!

It was starting to spit a bit, and once they had all received their money they slowly left us. Joe & I swam for a bit while Mum, Dad & Jo went under shelter in a little beach hut/bar. Joe and I then started to build one of the legendary family drizzle castles © Banham which encouraged two very little Cambodian girls to join in. The universal language of sandcastle bulding!
While we sat back, enjoyed a few beers, ate some squid & langoustines, & just relaxed on some hammocks, 3 little kids came over.. Jo helped them make some bracelets, and then dad and Joe joined with them and played with the local kick about toy shuttle cock thing! Slowly they interacted with us more, Jo called Emma & all of a sudden all of the children were calling ‘Emma, Emma, Emma, Emma’!! In the bar we were chatting generally with our Cambodian host when Joe heard and identified a Leeds accent. Sure enough the accent came from yet another Joe, the husband of the Cambodian host. Having moved here with his wife four months ago, they had set up this bar and seemed very relaxed, identifying us initially as Australian or New Zealand, we soon put him right.

With new Joe’s help, we were directed to an establishment that sold slightly different cuisine. We went, with our driver, and enjoyed a variety of pasta and salad type dishes for dinner. Anna still had crab and our driver Paol stuck to traditional Khmer food. A happy end to a day which started of miserably! Anna

...and today, after Anna and Simon's early start...

We went to take a somewhat voyeuristic look at the floating villages of Siem Reap on the Tonle Sap river.We saw some fish farms and a crocodile farm......yes crocodile is top on the list of delicacies!!

Angkor Wat (Now with Photos)

Angkor Wat, Friday 8th September.

Emma here. ‘Bout time I added something to the blog I guess!

Today was temple day. Unfortunately Anna didn’t feel very well and Simon stayed back at the hotel with her.(Simon and Anna went the next day at 06.30 because we are good!) Jo, Joe and I headed out, water and guide books in hand, looking forward to a good day out.

Our driver took us there and chauffeured us around all day. Having someone waiting on your every need is very strange and hard to get used to. He even comes round and opens the van door for us. We don’t know whether it is better to accept this gracefully, as we do, or to do things ourselves. The bus kept breaking down and the driver would go and find some other people to help him push. We could push – should we, or is it better to allow others to do so for us??

Anyway, the temples are wonderful. The combination of stunning, ancient buildings with the lush country side around is beautiful. It is a very commercial area, for Cambodia, and carefully managed with us needing to show our tickets frequently. Angkor Wat is the biggest and most impressive temple. It was incredibly hot with the sun beating down strongly. I didn’t realise that we could actually walk around inside the temples – given their age and fragility I assumed it would be look but don’t touch. The main part of Angkor Wat is up 38 incredibly steep, narrow and uneven steps. Ahead of us, two European girls were struggling to get to the top and we wondered whether we should even try. Another tourist told us that there was another way down with a bar to hold so we felt better about going up. Joe went first, and coped well. Jo and I followed. I’m usually fine with heights, but the heat, the uneven steps, plus the knowledge it would be a long way to get help should we fall……oh I felt weird! There’s nothing you can do but keep going as to descend again would be worse. The views were well worth it though and I hope this is reflected in the photos.

We walked back through the trees where there was a market. Being a rubbish tourist I must confess to buying a T-shirt! Made by Gap!! ( Was it a copy or was it straight from the sweat shop??) And a hat – was worried about sun stroke. (No photos of me wearing it will ever be published!)

We then had lunch and invited our driver to join us, which he did. The three of us ate our meal with chopsticks while he used a fork! The toilets there I think were the worst I have ever experienced – even worse than V.

We ‘did’ two more temples and saw some more statues of Buddha in the afternoon. We have not really explored the area as much as we should and there is much more to see, but it was so hot we were light weights and returned to the hotel.

Later on, Simon, Joe and I explored Siem Reap a little. We took a tuk tuk to the shops, which I love doing. You are much more part of the atmosphere than when we are cocooned in the van. You ride alongside bikes and people smile and wave more, especially children. Crossing the road or being in a vehicle is quite something here. We think that you just need to cross the road like a stereo typical teenager – don’t wait for a gap in the traffic, just go for it, absolve all responsibility for yourself and assume that everyone will see and avoid you. It does work though!

Anna felt well enough to come out for dinner with us tonight. She and Simon are going to the temples tomorrow and in the afternoon we are all going on a boat trip to the floating villages.

...........and just for Ali!

Journey from PP to Siem Reap

Hello and welcome again but this time Siem Reap which is north west of Cambodia. We haven’t looked around yet so I will describe the beautiful journey here. (Of which I can remember because I spent most the time sleeping on a South African’s shoulder, I’ll explain later.) We set off around 11 O’clock in our a/c Merc minibus. The drive took around 5 hours straight through beautiful villages, countryside, and miles of rice fields. Er… I can’t really describe it because I was asleep, oh but the story of the South Africans right ok!! Just over halfway the driver saw a broken down car and realised it was some people from the same hotel we were staying in so we stopped to take a look. Its was an old Toyota on which the radiator had rusted and cracked, luckily for dad they had stopped out side a Buddhist temple so dad took a few snap shots of it. We had decided to take the travellers to Siem Reap, which was fortunate because they were heading that way. (We left weirdly the other driver to stay and sleep in the car which I don’t understand) on the main journey I had fallen a sleep and I tried to keep next to the window as the two travellers were sitting next to me. When we arrived at the hotel in Siem Reap and were in our room dad mentioned that I had actually fallen asleep on the women’s shoulder which of course I was seriously embarrassed about.

Sorry about the short blog

See you soon

Joe


Joe didn’t sleep for that long and he did not dribble on the South African woman!
The drive was seriously impressive. This part of Cambodia is flatter than a steamrollered Norfolk. The difference between this and Norfolk however could not be greater. This is a lush green country with bright blue skies. The long route 6 was lined with wooden shacks, mainly on stilts. Most shacks had a front garden consisting of a pleasant bog filled with bright green and probably highly edible plants. Surrounding the homes were hundreds of acres of paddy fields in a variety of bright greens and yellows. These were interspersed, at times, with smaller, deeper ponds full of water lilies with leaves the size of dustbin lids and incredible white and mauve flowers. A few Yak wandered around the fields occasionally munching on unsuspecting greenery. Every now and then I spotted a yak that had found a deeper bit of water and had chosen to wallow lazily up to it’s horns. Every now and then we came upon a small village with a few shacks selling a variety of noodles with noodles or noodles and noodles with a side portion of rice; all delicious and reasonably priced. My travelling companions (apart from Joe) still prefer to eat in a restaurant rather than by the side of the road but they are getting more adventurous. This is especially so since our last restaurant offered delights such as: Brain and crab salad, stir fried bowel (chicken pork or beef) and more stir fried frog!

Unlike India, the journey felt safe, hectic yes, but the driver did at least show some respect for oncoming bikes/Tuk Tuks/donkeys/mules/cars/pedestrians. Despite the dodgy gearbox in an otherwise pleasant van, the driver managed to keep us going miraculously using 5th gear only! Only at one occasion did we require a push to get started and that was directly after lunch…I only had soup but I cannot vouch for the increased weight of the other passengers.

A quiet afternoon here in SR before hitting the tourist trail and the temples tomorrow.

Simon

Bugs as promised!

Just a quickie

We did get some fantastic shots today mainly when on the boat heading towards the Mekong delta. We also took some appetising snaps of the aforementioned fried bugs, which we will share with you later.

Some menu options for us today:

Fried big boy
Fried chilli frog

and previously:

intestine salad
sour morning glory

These of course will all need to be tested.

We are heading off to Siam Reap tomorrow to view the temples, including Angkhor Wat. We intend to have another boat ride and gently stroll around. Staying for 3 nights before returning to PP for a night.....and to collect our laundry!

Simon

Tha Anna has finally surfaced blog!

Now it’s my turn to write a blog. I have been trying to these past few days but Dad and Joe have been hogging it!!!!
Today we thought we should not plan anything, just do what we want, when we want, no alarms or anything! Jo and I woke at about 11.30, and as there are no windows in our room, it still felt very early! We came downstairs for breakfast at about 1230.
We had heard of a Russian market just a couple of blocks away, so we strolled down there; on the way I brought a fresh coconut to drink! It was only 1,500 Riel, which is about 20p!
The only way too describe the market was a Cambodian Camden BUT WORSE. Everyone is shouting ‘Ma’am you want a t-shirt?’ trying to get business out of us. Additionally there is a big dome filled with everything & anything. Jo wanted some baggy trousers & the women said ‘We have big size for you!’ It was very funny. I tried some board shorts on which were only $3 but the crotch was by my shins. Not a good look!
As we were getting a bit peckish we went to a little stall to eat Wagamama style noodles & sauce. Dad went to get some fried shrimp. As we ate we had a little audience of Cambodians laughing at us. We presume this was because we couldn’t use chopsticks… Other people were overwhelmed with Dad and me. Maybe because we were about 2 foot taller than them all? We browsed a bit more & found a stall that sold fried bugs. Yes. You read correctly. Spiders (big taranchalas(?)), cockroaches, grasshoppers, you name it. Dad wanted to try one, I’m glad he didn’t!
We caught a Tut Tut home. This is a man on a motercylce, pulling along a carriage type thing. It’s the best transport ever! So fun & scary. The driver drove past our hotel, and when he turned around there was a point where all traffic (from both directions) were coming towards us!)
Once we arrived at the hotel & freshened up, the manager of the hotel arranged a free boat ride for us on the river to watch the sunset & see the floating villages. This was lovely, as all the locals go to the river at night so it was buzzing; however we felt so rich & stuck out like a sore thumb! 5 westeners on their big private boat whilst the locals were squashed on their little boat homes.
Finally, to finish the day, like every day, we found a nice resturant for tea. On the menu was Fried Fat Boy. Mmmm. Suprisingly no-one chose that option.

Hope everyone is well.
Love,
Anna
Xxxxxxx
PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPH!!!!!!!!!!!!

S21

Well if you have read Joe’s blog, there is little else for us to add. The killing fields were horrific and very real, this despite the fact that many of the original buildings had been levelled. They are trying to recreate the area as it was. The experience had been offered in very sensitive terms. The authorities urging visitors to treat the area with respect, both in terms of preserving the horrors for future generations as reminders of the atrocities but mainly in respect of ‘the souls that died’ there. It was a traumatic visit, the worst of it being the fact that many thousands of unknown people remained buried under the ground on which we were walking. Evidence of this was apparent as clothing was rising and becoming visible as the soil was eroded by our footsteps. The authorities were keen that we took photographs to share the experience and ensure that as many people as possible recognised the atrocities in an effort to help prevent them occurring elsewhere.

S21, the interrogation centre was still pretty much as it was, though somewhat cleansed. Some floors were not accessible as they were still being prepared as part of the museum. This is a stark reminder of the fact that this happened not much more than 20 years ago. The shackles, beds, and cells were well maintained, leaving little to the imagination . The first floor revealed photographs taken by the Ultra Communist Khmer Rouge Regime (UCKRR), of the victims before they were massacred, as some sort of perverse records. Ultimately, these were put to positive use in trying to identify victims following the overthrowing of the UCKRR. The whole experience was, as Joe described, sickening. It was also enlightening and left us all deep in reflection about human nature.

Phnom Penh has recovered well. It is now a bustling town, full of life and smiles. Poverty is abundant, as are the sad and worn looks on many of the older generations faces. However there is a positive vibrancy around and it is worth a visit.

We are having fun…honest!

Simon had a shave today at a local barbers, just to make a comparison to his India experience!

Simon and Emma

the killing fields

Hello I’m back again but from Phnom Penh, we arrived early yesterday morning and found a little hotel from which I’m writing this blog. In that 1st day we just spent it relaxing from our early morning and caught up on a few Z’s! Phnom Penh is the capital of the country Cambodia its quite a bit hotter than Bangkok and there’s much more poverty and beggars on the streets. It does take a while for it to go in but after over ten beggars came up to asking for money and even more tuk tuk (this is the transport of Cambodia and Asia really, it’s a normal motorbike with a little cart attached to the rear of it.) drivers you do get used to the surroundings. After a good nights sleep (apart from the early wake up from a call for prayer at 5am) we got the hotel driver to drive us around town. The first stop was to the killing fields called Choeung ek genocidal centre, which is a memorial for all those who died twenty odd years ago. I’ll try to explain it to you but I don’t get it that much; In the1970’s the president of Cambodia tried to brainwash the country and turn it into a communist state and of course the were many to disagree so he took them to a remote part of the country and basically mass murdered everyone. We had gone to where it had all been done and it was extremely disturbing there is a 17 floor tower which had shelves of skulls they had dug up from the mass graves (as pictured) they were tortured in ways you couldn’t believe. We had walked round where the graves had been and they had got at least 300 people in a grave (also pictured) they had only found and dug up 20 thousand people which sounds a lot but in total over 3 million people were killed in a space of 3 years(!!) walking a round you could see clothes of the victims which had been rose to the surface naturally because they weren’t put in coffins, we walked past a tree where the children had been beaten to death and another tree where they hung a microphone with music loud enough to drown out the moaning, just thinking about it is making me sick!!

Moving on to a slightly more pleasant matter (we not really) we moved to the prisons and integration rooms which used to be a high school but it got transformed and all the classrooms are now cells ( but of course there don’t still use it) which is called S.21. I didn’t look around as much as I needed too to tell you about it but what I do know is that all the ground floor cells where used as torture chambers and there would be a bed for which someone would be chained to. They had pictures of the dead body on the wall of each cell and there where disturbing. For the interrogation, if you didn’t want to speak they would rope you up and hang you upside down until you lost conciseness and then they dunked you into a bucket of stinky water were you would instantly regain conciseness then the integration would continue. Um… I’m sorry to say that’s all I know about the prison but I’m sure you’ll find out more from my parents.



from joe

We have arrived in Phnom Penh

We are staying at the River Star Hotel, a slight comedown from the Bangkok Lotus, but lovely none the less!

More photos later.

My first experience of Bangkok

This is the life, we arrived yesterday afternoon and spent the day in the hotel ordering room service while mum, dad and Jo (who we are traveling with) went out for dinner. This morning I woke up with my dad and went to rome the streets of Bangkok looking for something to eat. In the end we found a little street vender and sat down to eat (pictured) and all of it only cost 20 BAHT (there's around 60 BAHT to a pound so work out for yourself). After the nice breakfast we walked a round for a while looking for a coffee for mum which was on the main street. After a nice cold Orange juice we took a stroll back and stop to by a few things. Writing this Jo and Anna have just come back from a swim. We're about to leave to go to a huge shopping mall.

see you all soon

Joe

One night in Bangkok (well two actually)....

We arrived here very tired and slightly disorientated. Jo (Wilson) our companion for the month arrived on a different flight so I went back to the airport to collect her. We are all at different stages of jet laggedness but have still managed to get out a bit. Joe chose to have breakfast/lunch at a street stall, which I am sure he'll write about. I managed to pursuade Jo and Anna to do the same, as pictured!

As I write, Joe, Emma, Anna and Jo are swimming in the pool on the 9th floor, 8 floors below me. I have been up for hours and have been out and about at least 4 times with different people as they have surfaced. We are all just about to go to the big commercial shops before having a (traditional) Thai massage. Our flight to Cambodia is 7am tomorrow.....an early start!

Simon