Arriving to Phenom Penh was now becoming akin to all the other arrivals - arrive get rudely awakened, tossed unceremoniously off the bus with daylight breaking into view as the rapidly descending mob of tuktuk drivers, eager motos and taxis tightly close in with a cacophony of 'Miss, you want cyclo/moto/tuktuk/taxi?' 'no thank you.' 'me/i good driver/ have good bike etc.' 'no thank you.' 'Miss, where you go now, miss... MISS?' 'NO, thank you.' Turn around organise walk/shared tuktuk etc. and choose one of the sea of drivers, all presumably vying for your custom as the rules of the Bus Game afford high stakes and big returns for those able to ferry several passengers to their hostel of choice buried deep within whichever city's you have emerged in backpacker haven.
In Phenom Penh this is by the Boeng Ek lake, or more aptly floating rubbish tip which cordons off the travelling community from the rest of civilised society. After a couple 0f hrs sleep in our floating accomodation we headed, via the 'Happy Farm' to Choung Ek. I'm glad this was the order as handling an AK47 or Colt .22 after seeing the horrors of the Killing Fields is a mildly repulsive proposition, I cannot imagine how blowing up a cow with a RPG could vaguely appeal to anyone having seen the destruction that plagues Cambodias recent history. The gravity of the Khmer Rouge acts and close phyiscal, human and time proximity to these attrocities serves to inculcate a very uncomfortable chill. At Choung Ek, to walk in rainy season between the mass graves is especially chilling since rags and bone fragments surface in the paths. I think the clothes were if anything the worst as they make it much more relatable - bones are animal and brutalised whereas clothing that we think of as transient and fragile outlives its owners to become a very human reminder of the individuals who once inhabited them.
The horrors of the past are commemorated in as tasteful a manner as you could hope for (possibly with the exception of the graphics and music on the film) but I'm not sure there's any way in which to make the visit seem less sordidly voyeuristic, the (highly recommended, sadly left languishing in a Vietnamese bus) excellent Footprint guide hardly helped the sentiment by commenting cynically on the nature of the buying of genocide, religious and war sites for tourist exploitation by various wealthy individuals.
Back in Phenom Penh I enjoyed meeting Joe of the infamous Happy Herb Pizza Joint and his collection of lost boys who were all staying free of charge upstairs in a distinctly fagin-esque setup on the condition they spent $3/day at the bar. Seeing as Joe's convivial style, wife's cooking and bewildered visiting mother-in-law lured you into at least several rounds and supper this was an incredible deal and so night no. 2 was on Joe's roof, hammock slung between buildings watching the stars over the lake - incredible despite the mosquitoes being quite so salacious!
Sunday, 18 July 2010
Saturday, 17 July 2010
Various places populated by monks, monkeys or more likely both
So I awoke following not a great number of hours sleep, probably partly due to the knowledge of my bedfellows relatives scratching around nearby to an unwelcome footwarmer. The screams were bloodcurdling and I fled my $1/night semi-al fresco bed for the relative comfort of the $3 barnhouse cubicle and then ran in the morning before they could work out quite who'd been in the bed (a little like goldilocks I like to imagine), but not before cooking my lunch in the kitchens (the staff were very surprised - i doubt they'd ever experienced such an intrusion before) and took a keen interest in the art of cooking risotto. 11am and the previous night's tuktuk driver had failed to show so I stumbled across Guan who was to be one of the main attractions of Siem Riep!
Guan was to firstly ferry me across to Ivy 2 where the food was AMAZING (actually i should qualify the Cambodian food was good but I think it is difficult with asian food to get beyond good to truly exceptional - recommend the amok though) and I indulged in plate after plate of mezze for $1.50 on a far too regular basis. An hour later after a shower I was off to Ankor which is exactly what I had expected and yet indescribably beautiful. The serenity of Ankor and Bayon surprised me given the weight of tourist traffic but then I realised I was viewing the circuit at reverse timings. Highlight of the day aside from watching the monkeys crawling around the smiling faces of bayon whilst I read a book in a cool corner before being whisked around a local school run by the monks where Guans' son was meant to be learning but appeared to be teaching english! After that, I resolved to pick up a load of textbooks and pens to hand out instead of buying the tat universally peddled by the kids (although a gappie i met informed me that most his class did both attend school and tout flutes/postcards/scarves etc.) which met with approving looks from the mothers who were then inclined to show me where I could eat something and make sure I got a free drink/desert or similar - Cambodians were a welcome change from the Thais who were rather less than pleased in general by young westerners.
Day 2 got off to a very early start and another rat (this one wasn't actually in the bed and so I hopped out the door and later had a word with the security guard to switch to an upstairs room). by 5am I was installed infront of the main complex with a couple of americans intringued by my ridiculous plastic faux lomo waiting (having managed to stumble over the ruins in pitch darkness) for the sun to rise which it did with majestic greatness over the ruins - picture soon I promise. From there a full 13hours of temple hopping interspersed with chats to Guan and his friends continued to the point where I think I got temple fatigue. So we decided to head off to the Roulous group where the sunset over the ruins there with evening prayer from the adjacent monastry in the company of some novices made for a unforgetable night and meant that I had a rather subdued evening since the lures of Siem Rieps 'Pub Alley' appeared less substancial given the preceedings.
Also in the 2 hours waiting sunset Guan and I had come up with a plan to get his tuktuk earning more. So the next day we headed post final ruins to the Silk Farm and I tried faltering french with the owner (who blatantly spoke english) until he understood that we were attempting to pimp out the tuktuk by upholstering it in silks and repainting the sign to proclaim him TukTuk De Luxe. In return guan now peddles their silks from his pukka backseat and offers free transport to the farm if wanted......... you can't miss him if youre in the vicinity! Dinner was served chez Guan by his lovely wife surrounded by children. Not exactly all that traditional fare considering roast chicken and caramelised apples appeared on the table but delicious and an awesome experience all the same!
Final port of call was quadbiking across the paddy fields of the nearby villages at dawn before catching my lunch at the floating villages and finally eating a selection of snake, ostrich, crocodile, frog and catfish at a khmer BBQ before cathcting the midnight bus (just; as experience dictates journeys never go smoothly...) onto Phnom Penh.
Guan was to firstly ferry me across to Ivy 2 where the food was AMAZING (actually i should qualify the Cambodian food was good but I think it is difficult with asian food to get beyond good to truly exceptional - recommend the amok though) and I indulged in plate after plate of mezze for $1.50 on a far too regular basis. An hour later after a shower I was off to Ankor which is exactly what I had expected and yet indescribably beautiful. The serenity of Ankor and Bayon surprised me given the weight of tourist traffic but then I realised I was viewing the circuit at reverse timings. Highlight of the day aside from watching the monkeys crawling around the smiling faces of bayon whilst I read a book in a cool corner before being whisked around a local school run by the monks where Guans' son was meant to be learning but appeared to be teaching english! After that, I resolved to pick up a load of textbooks and pens to hand out instead of buying the tat universally peddled by the kids (although a gappie i met informed me that most his class did both attend school and tout flutes/postcards/scarves etc.) which met with approving looks from the mothers who were then inclined to show me where I could eat something and make sure I got a free drink/desert or similar - Cambodians were a welcome change from the Thais who were rather less than pleased in general by young westerners.
Day 2 got off to a very early start and another rat (this one wasn't actually in the bed and so I hopped out the door and later had a word with the security guard to switch to an upstairs room). by 5am I was installed infront of the main complex with a couple of americans intringued by my ridiculous plastic faux lomo waiting (having managed to stumble over the ruins in pitch darkness) for the sun to rise which it did with majestic greatness over the ruins - picture soon I promise. From there a full 13hours of temple hopping interspersed with chats to Guan and his friends continued to the point where I think I got temple fatigue. So we decided to head off to the Roulous group where the sunset over the ruins there with evening prayer from the adjacent monastry in the company of some novices made for a unforgetable night and meant that I had a rather subdued evening since the lures of Siem Rieps 'Pub Alley' appeared less substancial given the preceedings.
Also in the 2 hours waiting sunset Guan and I had come up with a plan to get his tuktuk earning more. So the next day we headed post final ruins to the Silk Farm and I tried faltering french with the owner (who blatantly spoke english) until he understood that we were attempting to pimp out the tuktuk by upholstering it in silks and repainting the sign to proclaim him TukTuk De Luxe. In return guan now peddles their silks from his pukka backseat and offers free transport to the farm if wanted......... you can't miss him if youre in the vicinity! Dinner was served chez Guan by his lovely wife surrounded by children. Not exactly all that traditional fare considering roast chicken and caramelised apples appeared on the table but delicious and an awesome experience all the same!
Final port of call was quadbiking across the paddy fields of the nearby villages at dawn before catching my lunch at the floating villages and finally eating a selection of snake, ostrich, crocodile, frog and catfish at a khmer BBQ before cathcting the midnight bus (just; as experience dictates journeys never go smoothly...) onto Phnom Penh.
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
A Very Asian Travel Experience
From the beachbars of Haad Rin (although I think the boss was slightly surprised when he appeared to pay me at my palatial surroundings of Neptune Villas where we'd been staying since the incident with the giant Geckos and Lizzies phantom fever) I said my goodbyes and set off for Bangkok which I finally managed to reach after being left to loiter around various restaurants for random intervals of time (whether the motivation was nepotistic or solely commision was unclear). The frequent breaks did have one positive aspect; i realised that the normal privacy rules for anglophones are suspended in transit and so they provided the perfect opportunity to chat people up enough to have a few friendly faces to share a drink with, or in cases of exceptional luck, a room.
Dave looked like he had been bifuricated across asian markets and indeed had a veritable array of travellers diseases, largely picked up from swimming in the world's filthiest river (putting VangVien to shame); the Ganges (or as dave would have it 'the worlds holiest river'), which despite having gifted him nothing but a few chronic chest problems, eye infections and skin trouble he gleefully recounted - floating remains of cobra victims and all. However, once we'd woken up (we arrived early; 5am) we managed to bump into someone he'd met on a previous bangkok sortie and so we ended up in a taxi shouting furiously to 'follow that taxi.' The Overstay was simple but otherwise perfectly formed. It was really a sort of hippy community that had somehow found itself swallowed by Bangkok and couldn't get up the effort to leave but it was perfectly charming, despite the missing window panes, general disrepair and ratsize hole in our wall. Higher up where the digs of the long term residents who were only too happy to help us out and dispense a little expat knowledge or start throwing paint across the room at broken mannequins (not as mad as it seems; there was an entire floor dedicated to this kind of creative outlet) and seeing as communal meals where the order of the day it was rather difficult to actually build up the effort to leave and venture out into Bangkok.
Aside from nightly Ko San road trips (which only made me more glad that I'd not stayed there), I made it out to the smaller temples and then to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho (even if the main attraction here was it's role as the home of Thai massage - I promise I did attend my massage sesion via the reclining Buddha!). The great tuktuk scam still exists but, given you dont have a tight time schedule, can be worked to your advantage - a typical outing for me entailed jumping in and saying 'how many shops before 'insert destination' for free?' eventually after impressive feats of acting prowess you would emerge without an overpriced pillow case and the tuktuk driver would be grinning widely as he was in receipt of a gasoline token or two depending on the quality of feined interest, at this point if you were lucky you'd be taken to your desired destination.
Alternative transport became a pet love of ours and instead we often found ourselves in the back of BB gun vans, more comfortably a mattress home delivery service and occasionally when we were feeling energetic we would walk down the main street tripping over our phonetically learnt Thai to get to the local ferry and over to the old town.
Leaving Bangkok was all a bit of a rush and due to a rather late night and the storm the last morning, intended for a fake handbag shop, got off to a belated start before being prematurely terminated by the announcement that the last train to Arranyapraphet had been cancelled so I would have to forgo the Jimmy Choo and jump on the train waving hasty goodbyes to Danny and Dave. (Danny had also been on the bus and had proved himself a little more capable of being ontime, possibly due to a combination of his owning both a watch and a phone and his occupation as a marine).
For a princely sum of 48baht (about a dollar) I was bumping along to the border - sadly not with the expected local livestock but instead an assortment of school children who typically traveled about 2-4hours on the train, presumably daily. The local train did have a few advantages - largely because the usual abrupt service of the coach companies wasn't hassling, shouting and stealing away your (very, overused, thin, scratchy, in all likelihood diseased) blanket the second you got comfy. Once there I was treated to a very salubrious border crossing.
Swanthep travel company, if anyone has the misfortune to be offered their services, was distinctly dodge - in fact I don't believe it was a legitimate travel company at all. However, after racing tuktuks, pointing out that the visa charge was not 1200baht but 700, being ushered off to get out money (whereupon I asked if I could instead post some letters), being thrown inside a casino whilst they sped off elsewhere to get our visas (despite the visa office being closed at 7pm; most likely the extra visa charge was a bribe to the official who was stamping visas out of hours), the strangeness didn't end on the other side of the border where the gaudy surroundings of vice city Poipet only amplified the goings on. We ended up driving over a roundabout to find the 2 other western boys who'd also been through a similar rigmarole but left in the middle of a motorway before reaching Siem Riep. Once in Siem Riep it took a good while for the included driver to actually get me to my destination rather than the one with the best commission (actually i later found out the real reason nicknamed the Bus Game) which was perhaps not the best option as I was to wake up not that many hours later to a new unwanted, very rodential, bedfellow.
Dave looked like he had been bifuricated across asian markets and indeed had a veritable array of travellers diseases, largely picked up from swimming in the world's filthiest river (putting VangVien to shame); the Ganges (or as dave would have it 'the worlds holiest river'), which despite having gifted him nothing but a few chronic chest problems, eye infections and skin trouble he gleefully recounted - floating remains of cobra victims and all. However, once we'd woken up (we arrived early; 5am) we managed to bump into someone he'd met on a previous bangkok sortie and so we ended up in a taxi shouting furiously to 'follow that taxi.' The Overstay was simple but otherwise perfectly formed. It was really a sort of hippy community that had somehow found itself swallowed by Bangkok and couldn't get up the effort to leave but it was perfectly charming, despite the missing window panes, general disrepair and ratsize hole in our wall. Higher up where the digs of the long term residents who were only too happy to help us out and dispense a little expat knowledge or start throwing paint across the room at broken mannequins (not as mad as it seems; there was an entire floor dedicated to this kind of creative outlet) and seeing as communal meals where the order of the day it was rather difficult to actually build up the effort to leave and venture out into Bangkok.
Aside from nightly Ko San road trips (which only made me more glad that I'd not stayed there), I made it out to the smaller temples and then to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho (even if the main attraction here was it's role as the home of Thai massage - I promise I did attend my massage sesion via the reclining Buddha!). The great tuktuk scam still exists but, given you dont have a tight time schedule, can be worked to your advantage - a typical outing for me entailed jumping in and saying 'how many shops before 'insert destination' for free?' eventually after impressive feats of acting prowess you would emerge without an overpriced pillow case and the tuktuk driver would be grinning widely as he was in receipt of a gasoline token or two depending on the quality of feined interest, at this point if you were lucky you'd be taken to your desired destination.
Alternative transport became a pet love of ours and instead we often found ourselves in the back of BB gun vans, more comfortably a mattress home delivery service and occasionally when we were feeling energetic we would walk down the main street tripping over our phonetically learnt Thai to get to the local ferry and over to the old town.
Leaving Bangkok was all a bit of a rush and due to a rather late night and the storm the last morning, intended for a fake handbag shop, got off to a belated start before being prematurely terminated by the announcement that the last train to Arranyapraphet had been cancelled so I would have to forgo the Jimmy Choo and jump on the train waving hasty goodbyes to Danny and Dave. (Danny had also been on the bus and had proved himself a little more capable of being ontime, possibly due to a combination of his owning both a watch and a phone and his occupation as a marine).
For a princely sum of 48baht (about a dollar) I was bumping along to the border - sadly not with the expected local livestock but instead an assortment of school children who typically traveled about 2-4hours on the train, presumably daily. The local train did have a few advantages - largely because the usual abrupt service of the coach companies wasn't hassling, shouting and stealing away your (very, overused, thin, scratchy, in all likelihood diseased) blanket the second you got comfy. Once there I was treated to a very salubrious border crossing.
Swanthep travel company, if anyone has the misfortune to be offered their services, was distinctly dodge - in fact I don't believe it was a legitimate travel company at all. However, after racing tuktuks, pointing out that the visa charge was not 1200baht but 700, being ushered off to get out money (whereupon I asked if I could instead post some letters), being thrown inside a casino whilst they sped off elsewhere to get our visas (despite the visa office being closed at 7pm; most likely the extra visa charge was a bribe to the official who was stamping visas out of hours), the strangeness didn't end on the other side of the border where the gaudy surroundings of vice city Poipet only amplified the goings on. We ended up driving over a roundabout to find the 2 other western boys who'd also been through a similar rigmarole but left in the middle of a motorway before reaching Siem Riep. Once in Siem Riep it took a good while for the included driver to actually get me to my destination rather than the one with the best commission (actually i later found out the real reason nicknamed the Bus Game) which was perhaps not the best option as I was to wake up not that many hours later to a new unwanted, very rodential, bedfellow.
Monday, 5 July 2010
from raving to the ratrace
far away from the relative tranquility that can be found on koh phi phi is koh phangan on the eastern coast. Some time in the 80s a party started at full moon (when buddists are feeling at their holiest ironically) and has been gathering increasing numbers of backpackers and lost souls ever since. Having had 2 weeks of holidayesque rampaging around asia I thought I should probably get a job and so after a few hours of pestering, a 'come back at 5 tomorrow," came my way, by way of the Cactus beach bar. This actually turned out to be more troublesome than it might first appear on the surface due to a series of unfortunate events.
Lizzie and I were determined to stick to our original booking which we were assured was 'a little far out' from the party. Being on the otherside of Thongsala it transpired that 30minutes away by car was more accurate, another slight issue was the accomodation itself and with Lizzie having caught and modified my cold to rather more dramatic effect the appearance of a giant gecko in our bamboo hut was the last straw and we decided to bite the bullet and decamp back to Haad Rin and a/c. Last problem Bells had finally given in to the demands that she visit the invalid at perfectly comic timing - and she had no phone. At 4.30 I had no choice but to leave Lizzie and hitch the next lift. Hans thankfully appeared after not too long since Thais dont appear to understand the thumbs up. Hans had fashioned a sidecar from scrap metal and was on his way to Baan Thai (1/2 way) to pick up his dog - perfect; only one issue aside from the safety if the sidecar remained and that was that Hans resembled a Neo-Nazi Hells Angel only wearing a kaftan, but once we collected the dog from the vet (and the morphined up animal was firmly in place to drool away oblivously on my lap) we headed onto Haad rin since he felt sorry for me.
I got the job and was to be paid a princely 300baht a night or 1.50GBP an hour.
Lizzie and I were determined to stick to our original booking which we were assured was 'a little far out' from the party. Being on the otherside of Thongsala it transpired that 30minutes away by car was more accurate, another slight issue was the accomodation itself and with Lizzie having caught and modified my cold to rather more dramatic effect the appearance of a giant gecko in our bamboo hut was the last straw and we decided to bite the bullet and decamp back to Haad Rin and a/c. Last problem Bells had finally given in to the demands that she visit the invalid at perfectly comic timing - and she had no phone. At 4.30 I had no choice but to leave Lizzie and hitch the next lift. Hans thankfully appeared after not too long since Thais dont appear to understand the thumbs up. Hans had fashioned a sidecar from scrap metal and was on his way to Baan Thai (1/2 way) to pick up his dog - perfect; only one issue aside from the safety if the sidecar remained and that was that Hans resembled a Neo-Nazi Hells Angel only wearing a kaftan, but once we collected the dog from the vet (and the morphined up animal was firmly in place to drool away oblivously on my lap) we headed onto Haad rin since he felt sorry for me.
I got the job and was to be paid a princely 300baht a night or 1.50GBP an hour.
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