Sawadii-kha!
So we're back in Bangkok, and we've had another 'holiday'; this time it's been an actual holiday and not a fake holiday where we spend all of our time schlepping around and having places to be and things to do. This actual holiday has involved.. well, nothing. And it's been GREAT! We checked into a relatively nice hotel with a pool and seats for schloching about, and we've spent the past couple of days just relaxing and winding down before our wonderful 15 hours of flights tomorrow. We're saving money and the stress of an early start by going to the airport at 11pm tonight, for an 8am flight tomorrow, although I don't know how good a night's sleep we'll get hanging around in Departures at the airport.
We've been to Khao San Road market a few times, to get the last few bits and pieces, and I've managed to get my nails done, but generally there is nothing to report nor take photos of. It's been GREAT though, did I mention that?
The border crossing was indeed stress-free, somehow it all worked despite our coach leaving 45 mins later than it should've done while we sat in the bus while it went nowhere, before being told "bus broken. you change bus.", and then once we'd changed, the bus we'd been on originally just drove off, ostensibly not broken. Luckily we got to the border before there was really much of a queue, and at the other side I managed to schmooze a bit and get us on a cheap minibus to Bangkok. The journey was quick but the driving was APPALLING - the driver had no clue what clutch control was, or indeed that it might be desireable to maybe stop and start gradually, rather than stop-start-stop-start and driving mere centimetres from the vehicle in front, and this was mostly apparent in the worse traffic I've ever seen outside of horriffic hold-ups on the M25; there was no accident and neither was there a particular problem, this was apparently normal for Bangkok with the sheer weight of traffic meaning it took us as long to get from the outskirts to the centre of Bangkok, as it did for us to get from Aranya Prathet on the border, 140km to Bangkok. Speaking of which, I've just surveyed my passport which looks AWESOME with all the visas and stamps etc. It's not a reason to travel of course, but it's a very happy by-product.
So if I can get back on the free wifi at Abu Dhabi when we connect, I'll post a further update, but otherwise, expect us back all being well on Tuesday night. Ps thanks TfL staff for striking today/tomorrow, that's really what I want to deal with after a 3-week schlep around South-East Asia plus a whole day's worth of flying. Planning on getting the Picadilly Line to Green Park, changing to the Victoria line for 1 stop, and then getting the national rail to Nunhead. If the transport gods are listening, can you please do me a massive favour and keep that route free, please?
Lots of love to you all and see you very soon!
xxxxxx Louise
Monday, 6 September 2010
Friday, 3 September 2010
Siem Reap
Good evening, although it feels a lot more like the middle of the night, such has been our sleeping/waking pattern over the past day or so. We woke up at 4am this morning to get to Angkor Wat for sunrise, and then explored that and the surrounding temples until about midday, before collapsing back into the tuk-tuk and returning to the town. The temples were mind-blowing and very impressive; sunrise wasn't as good as it could've been as it was cloudy, but seeing the morning light bathe the temple and a perfect reflection in the water in front of it was absolutely stunning. I have lots of pictures, but to be honest you'll do much better to just google image search "Angkor Wat" for an idea. We had a tuk-tuk driver taking us from place to place, although he wasn't the one we'd pre arranged the day before: upon arriving at the Siem Reap bus station, we found a tuk-tuk driver and agreed that we'd pay him 15 dollars to take us to our hotel then, and then to drive us around the next day, and even though we didn't pay him anything yesterday and he would've had a guaranteed job today, he didn't turn up! We waited about 20 mins and then decided that we'd miss the sunrise if we didn't leave soon - so we found another driver, who agreed on 10 dollars for the day and ended up being really nice, like at one point during the intermittent torrential rain, we'd hopped out of the tuk-tuk to use the toilets, and then the rain started again, so he came to find us (about a minute-long walk in the driving rain) with two umbrellas so we could get back to the tuk-tuk in relative comfort :D
There was one incident/altercation when we were sitting across the lake/big puddle from Angkor Wat at about 6am with all the other tourists (there are SO MANY JAPANESE TOURISTS HERE, HOW DO THEY ALL AFFORD IT?!!?) sitting on red plastic chairs, and the stall-holders were flogging their wares (from the moment you leave your tuk-tuk at the entrance to all the temples, you're accosted by people offering LADY YOU WANT BRACELET? I HAVE COLD DRINK JUST ONE DOLLAR. YOU LIKE T-SHIRT? and one of the stall-holders came over and tried to get us to go to his food stall, just the usual until he said that his stall was number 007 and his name was James Bond. I'm not really a film-afficionado but I didn't recognise him: but then again I've only seen the Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery films so what do I know. Anyway, he kept insisting that since we were sitting on 'his' chairs, we had to buy a coffee from him. We went to a different stall when we did eventually want breakfast (one where they hadn't tried to tout us and where no-one else was sitting; they're all offering exactly the same food for exactly the same price and I wanted to discourage hassly selling), we found that all the stalls had EXACTLY THE SAME chairs! He still had a go at us on our way back past him, and insisted that we had lied and stolen the use of his chairs. Sigh.
Anyway, so temple exploration was fun, I enjoyed feeling like Indiana Jones and scaling perilously steep stone steps in the rain, and generally not understanding how they managed such amazing structures. But it got to about midday, we'd been up for 8 hours and it was enough.
Following that, we had some lunch at a place offering FREE FI-WI, and then ice-cream / sorbet. (Mark, I expect you at Heathrow on Tuesday evening with a HUGE tub of raspberry ripple). Ricky was going to get a fish massage (where you put your feet into a tank of fish who, apparently, enjoy nibbling the dead skin off your feet - although I don't know how the fish are able to communicate their culinary likes/dislikes to the proprietors), but ended up not due to rain and logistics, ie. came back to the hotel because of rain, and then didn't get changed and go out because we both fell asleep for several hours. So now, although it's only 7.30, it really feels like the middle of the night, and we're ready for sleep very soon, especially since we have a 4.30 start for the schlep back to Bangkok - not really looking forward to that, but it's overland schlep or expensive flight.
Siem Reap is nicer than you'd imagine, given it's just the town that houses the millions of visitors who flock to see the ancient temples. We're staying at a Burmese/Khmer guesthouse where the staff are super-super-nice and helpful and we've got our cheapest room yet, with the television that just keeps on giving. We've had a lot of animal programmes, including animal programmes with snakes/spiders that Ricky insists on watching even though he's deathly afraid of them - he's doing it right now!!
Anyway, to bed now I think. Hopefully the next time I update will be following a straightforward border-crossing and I will be non-stressed and generally serene and calm. Fingers crossed!
Lots of love,
Louise xxx
There was one incident/altercation when we were sitting across the lake/big puddle from Angkor Wat at about 6am with all the other tourists (there are SO MANY JAPANESE TOURISTS HERE, HOW DO THEY ALL AFFORD IT?!!?) sitting on red plastic chairs, and the stall-holders were flogging their wares (from the moment you leave your tuk-tuk at the entrance to all the temples, you're accosted by people offering LADY YOU WANT BRACELET? I HAVE COLD DRINK JUST ONE DOLLAR. YOU LIKE T-SHIRT? and one of the stall-holders came over and tried to get us to go to his food stall, just the usual until he said that his stall was number 007 and his name was James Bond. I'm not really a film-afficionado but I didn't recognise him: but then again I've only seen the Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery films so what do I know. Anyway, he kept insisting that since we were sitting on 'his' chairs, we had to buy a coffee from him. We went to a different stall when we did eventually want breakfast (one where they hadn't tried to tout us and where no-one else was sitting; they're all offering exactly the same food for exactly the same price and I wanted to discourage hassly selling), we found that all the stalls had EXACTLY THE SAME chairs! He still had a go at us on our way back past him, and insisted that we had lied and stolen the use of his chairs. Sigh.
Anyway, so temple exploration was fun, I enjoyed feeling like Indiana Jones and scaling perilously steep stone steps in the rain, and generally not understanding how they managed such amazing structures. But it got to about midday, we'd been up for 8 hours and it was enough.
Following that, we had some lunch at a place offering FREE FI-WI, and then ice-cream / sorbet. (Mark, I expect you at Heathrow on Tuesday evening with a HUGE tub of raspberry ripple). Ricky was going to get a fish massage (where you put your feet into a tank of fish who, apparently, enjoy nibbling the dead skin off your feet - although I don't know how the fish are able to communicate their culinary likes/dislikes to the proprietors), but ended up not due to rain and logistics, ie. came back to the hotel because of rain, and then didn't get changed and go out because we both fell asleep for several hours. So now, although it's only 7.30, it really feels like the middle of the night, and we're ready for sleep very soon, especially since we have a 4.30 start for the schlep back to Bangkok - not really looking forward to that, but it's overland schlep or expensive flight.
Siem Reap is nicer than you'd imagine, given it's just the town that houses the millions of visitors who flock to see the ancient temples. We're staying at a Burmese/Khmer guesthouse where the staff are super-super-nice and helpful and we've got our cheapest room yet, with the television that just keeps on giving. We've had a lot of animal programmes, including animal programmes with snakes/spiders that Ricky insists on watching even though he's deathly afraid of them - he's doing it right now!!
Anyway, to bed now I think. Hopefully the next time I update will be following a straightforward border-crossing and I will be non-stressed and generally serene and calm. Fingers crossed!
Lots of love,
Louise xxx
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
Saigon to Phnom Penh
According to the BBC, it's 93 fahrenheit here. According to the Louise weather forecast it is HOT HOT HOT. And humid, so very humid. I've just returned from a sweltering round of haggling and schlepping in the Russian Market (so-called because lots of Russians used to go there, not because they sell lots of big furry hats) under a tin roof, which was about as breezy as it sounds. I keep dabbing at my face with a napkin, but I'm still glistening constantly (women don't sweat, they glow). However, I absolutely love Phnom Penh, and have decided that it's my favourite place on this whole trip (unless Siem Reap turns out to be nice, which is doubtful since it's just a launch-pad for the zillions of visitors to the ancient Wats of Angkor etc.). The people of Laos were certainly lovely, and Luang Prabang was wonderful, but Phnom Penh has a certain something about it that makes me want to come back – and this is the first place I've been to that feels like I could live and work here (though obviously London remains my one and only true love in terms of home).
The Khmers are very friendly and non-hassley (general offering of tuk-tuks/motorcycle rides excepted) and their relentless cheeriness in the face of all that has gone before (upon which much more later) is admirable and infectious. Plus, vitally for me, the food is lovely and sort of a Thai/Indian fusion with superb coffee and baked goods. Phnom Penh is a surprisingly cosmopolitan city (we've found the best bakery/cafe ever that I would just about LIVE in if they had a branch in London) with a branch of PriceWaterhouseCooper and a bustling commercial centre plus a thriving arts scene, the architecture of the temples and even just the buildings is stunning, and best of all it's set on a lake (Tonlé Sap). Ricky and I are in accordance that we're not really beach people, but we are city-with-a-large-body-of-water people. There's a huge strip of bars/restaurants/pubs along the lake, and at night it feels really safe to walk around. So Phnom Penh has completely taken me by surprise and I love it a little bit. Which is funny, because we only stopped here for logistical reasons; we didn't want to do the whole 10-hour coach journey from Saigon to Siem Reap, and thought “hey it's a capital city, there must be stuff to do”.
History time.
The Khmer empire used to (as in, first to ninth century AD) be the biggest and best in the whole region, before a whole host of tragic and unfortunate events caused it to be as it is today, which is still developed, but far less so than the other countries in the region, even little Laos. This is thanks to various episodes, including but not limited to French colonisation and inter-nation warring with its neighbours. (the town next to the most famous point for tourism in Cambodia, Siem Reap, undiplomatically means “Siamese defeated”). The difference in living conditions was palpable upon crossing the border; and even though Phnom Penh is fairly gentrified in parts, there are many many pockets that remind me far more of India than any other urban settings in ex-IndoChina. There are a fair few beggars around too, many who have lost limbs presumably due to landmines, and others who I would guess have just suffered unfortunately from the reality of a country trying desperately to repair itself after the regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. In three years and eight months, the country was systematically disassembled and all culture, industry and academia was completely destroyed (wearing glasses was enough to have you arrested and tortured/murdered as an intellectual). Overnight, thousands of people were rounded up and marched out of their home city, town or village, and put to work for 12-15 hours a day of gruelling manual labour, with very little to eat. Reading about it on paper is one thing, but actually visiting the museum really forces you to confront it. This morning we visited Tuol Sleng or S-21, which was a school until the Khmer Rouge turned it into a centre for detaining, torturing and murdering those who they saw as opponents of the regime. Unsurprisingly, this was just a thin veil for rounding up innocent people for no particular reason and then forcing them to confess to things they hadn't done. With the exception of a few displays and placquards which describe conditions, the school has been left as it was found in 1979, and opened as “evidence” (their term not mine) of the atrocities committed which they say amount to genocide. Lonely Planet says “Tuol Sleng was the largest incarceration centre in the country. The long corridors are hallways of ghosts containing haunting photographs of the victims, their faces staring back eerily from the Past. Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge leaders were meticulous in keeping records of their barbarism...when the Vietnamese army liberated Tuol Sleng in 1979, there were only 7 prisoners alive at S-21, all of whom had used their skills such as painting or photography to stay alive.” Needless to say, it was incredibly harrowing; I felt nauseous the whole time I was there and we both had to have a pretty lengthy time-out when it all got a bit too much. Obviously it wasn't the most pleasant of mornings, but you can't come to Cambodia without trying to understand what has gone before, which helps to put things into context. The recentness of Pol Pot's regime means that everyone in the country will have either experienced it personally, or their parents will have done. And the casualty/death toll means that many know someone who perished due to the brutality. As I used to close my work emails with at the Department of Health, “happy to discuss further if necessary”, but seriously it is a topic that I've become fascinated by, so always up for talking/learning more about it. More info at www.dccam.org, and www.yale.edu/cgp.
We had some lunch to recover (at a wonderful cafe across the road, serving incredible healthy dishes with the proceeds going to good causes), and then Ricky came back to the hotel to lie down, while I braved the aforementioned market, and am pretty pleased with the proceeds of my efforts and haggling skills, which I have now honed to a T. Oh and this morning in the cafe I had the best coffee of the trip, along with a cream-cheese bagel and an old copy of Glamour magazine. Now I'm sitting outside the hotel on the netbook, while Ricky has gone to get a massage and I have told him NO EXTRAS, or if he does then I'm not accompanying him to the Sexual Health clinic once we get home. Yesterday was a long, pretty much uneventful coach trip to get here, and once we arrived it starting raining torrentially, meaning we were trapped in our hotel, although we did go for a wander along the lake later on. I found affogato, an Italian dish, which combines my two favourite things in the world; vanilla ice-cream drowned in a shot of espresso. I struggle to find that in London outside of Italian cafes, but it's here in Phnom Penh. Just another thing that has impressed me greatly!
So tomorrow we're up early, 4-hour coach to Siem Reap, resting/pottering for the remainder of the day, and the next day having an epic early start to see Angkor Wat for sunrise, followed by as many further temples as we can cope with before the heat forces us to retreat to our hotel. And then we have to make our way back to Bangkok overland; apparently the border crossing is tiring but nothing that a bit of bribery can't fix (wave dollars and they open up another booth, thus saving you the 2-hour-long queue in the blazing, relentless heat). I'll see if my morals win out over comfort.
BBC World Service informs me that Tony Blair couldn't even wait til my return to publish his memoirs: how rude! I take it that the country will kindly refrain from reading/commenting upon it until I get back, pleaseandthankyou.
That's enough from me, something from you now please :)
Louise xxx
ps. Phnom Penh has nothing to do with pens, but rather is named after a temple (Wat Phnom) that was founded by a lady called Penh. So there.
The Khmers are very friendly and non-hassley (general offering of tuk-tuks/motorcycle rides excepted) and their relentless cheeriness in the face of all that has gone before (upon which much more later) is admirable and infectious. Plus, vitally for me, the food is lovely and sort of a Thai/Indian fusion with superb coffee and baked goods. Phnom Penh is a surprisingly cosmopolitan city (we've found the best bakery/cafe ever that I would just about LIVE in if they had a branch in London) with a branch of PriceWaterhouseCooper and a bustling commercial centre plus a thriving arts scene, the architecture of the temples and even just the buildings is stunning, and best of all it's set on a lake (Tonlé Sap). Ricky and I are in accordance that we're not really beach people, but we are city-with-a-large-body-of-water people. There's a huge strip of bars/restaurants/pubs along the lake, and at night it feels really safe to walk around. So Phnom Penh has completely taken me by surprise and I love it a little bit. Which is funny, because we only stopped here for logistical reasons; we didn't want to do the whole 10-hour coach journey from Saigon to Siem Reap, and thought “hey it's a capital city, there must be stuff to do”.
History time.
The Khmer empire used to (as in, first to ninth century AD) be the biggest and best in the whole region, before a whole host of tragic and unfortunate events caused it to be as it is today, which is still developed, but far less so than the other countries in the region, even little Laos. This is thanks to various episodes, including but not limited to French colonisation and inter-nation warring with its neighbours. (the town next to the most famous point for tourism in Cambodia, Siem Reap, undiplomatically means “Siamese defeated”). The difference in living conditions was palpable upon crossing the border; and even though Phnom Penh is fairly gentrified in parts, there are many many pockets that remind me far more of India than any other urban settings in ex-IndoChina. There are a fair few beggars around too, many who have lost limbs presumably due to landmines, and others who I would guess have just suffered unfortunately from the reality of a country trying desperately to repair itself after the regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. In three years and eight months, the country was systematically disassembled and all culture, industry and academia was completely destroyed (wearing glasses was enough to have you arrested and tortured/murdered as an intellectual). Overnight, thousands of people were rounded up and marched out of their home city, town or village, and put to work for 12-15 hours a day of gruelling manual labour, with very little to eat. Reading about it on paper is one thing, but actually visiting the museum really forces you to confront it. This morning we visited Tuol Sleng or S-21, which was a school until the Khmer Rouge turned it into a centre for detaining, torturing and murdering those who they saw as opponents of the regime. Unsurprisingly, this was just a thin veil for rounding up innocent people for no particular reason and then forcing them to confess to things they hadn't done. With the exception of a few displays and placquards which describe conditions, the school has been left as it was found in 1979, and opened as “evidence” (their term not mine) of the atrocities committed which they say amount to genocide. Lonely Planet says “Tuol Sleng was the largest incarceration centre in the country. The long corridors are hallways of ghosts containing haunting photographs of the victims, their faces staring back eerily from the Past. Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge leaders were meticulous in keeping records of their barbarism...when the Vietnamese army liberated Tuol Sleng in 1979, there were only 7 prisoners alive at S-21, all of whom had used their skills such as painting or photography to stay alive.” Needless to say, it was incredibly harrowing; I felt nauseous the whole time I was there and we both had to have a pretty lengthy time-out when it all got a bit too much. Obviously it wasn't the most pleasant of mornings, but you can't come to Cambodia without trying to understand what has gone before, which helps to put things into context. The recentness of Pol Pot's regime means that everyone in the country will have either experienced it personally, or their parents will have done. And the casualty/death toll means that many know someone who perished due to the brutality. As I used to close my work emails with at the Department of Health, “happy to discuss further if necessary”, but seriously it is a topic that I've become fascinated by, so always up for talking/learning more about it. More info at www.dccam.org, and www.yale.edu/cgp.
We had some lunch to recover (at a wonderful cafe across the road, serving incredible healthy dishes with the proceeds going to good causes), and then Ricky came back to the hotel to lie down, while I braved the aforementioned market, and am pretty pleased with the proceeds of my efforts and haggling skills, which I have now honed to a T. Oh and this morning in the cafe I had the best coffee of the trip, along with a cream-cheese bagel and an old copy of Glamour magazine. Now I'm sitting outside the hotel on the netbook, while Ricky has gone to get a massage and I have told him NO EXTRAS, or if he does then I'm not accompanying him to the Sexual Health clinic once we get home. Yesterday was a long, pretty much uneventful coach trip to get here, and once we arrived it starting raining torrentially, meaning we were trapped in our hotel, although we did go for a wander along the lake later on. I found affogato, an Italian dish, which combines my two favourite things in the world; vanilla ice-cream drowned in a shot of espresso. I struggle to find that in London outside of Italian cafes, but it's here in Phnom Penh. Just another thing that has impressed me greatly!
So tomorrow we're up early, 4-hour coach to Siem Reap, resting/pottering for the remainder of the day, and the next day having an epic early start to see Angkor Wat for sunrise, followed by as many further temples as we can cope with before the heat forces us to retreat to our hotel. And then we have to make our way back to Bangkok overland; apparently the border crossing is tiring but nothing that a bit of bribery can't fix (wave dollars and they open up another booth, thus saving you the 2-hour-long queue in the blazing, relentless heat). I'll see if my morals win out over comfort.
BBC World Service informs me that Tony Blair couldn't even wait til my return to publish his memoirs: how rude! I take it that the country will kindly refrain from reading/commenting upon it until I get back, pleaseandthankyou.
That's enough from me, something from you now please :)
Louise xxx
ps. Phnom Penh has nothing to do with pens, but rather is named after a temple (Wat Phnom) that was founded by a lady called Penh. So there.
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