Day 61-64 Sihanoukville - Kampot - Kep

Our next stop in amazing Cambodia was the beach side town of Sihanoukville. This place was alive and humming with party seekers...its definitely on the cards to becoming one of the biggest holiday destinations in asia. The beaches around Sihanoukville were surprisingly beautiful with white squeaky sand. Mike and I enjoyed some beach time, enjoyed watching the All Blacks cream the Irish, snuck into the fancy resort down the  road to have a swim at their exclusive beach, found an awesome Italian restaurant, fought of ladies wanting to "thread" all the  hair off my entire body...paint my toes...or make me a bracelet, and I almost tried to steal a gorgeous 4 month old baby who sat with me through dinner sucking on her fingers (much like another adorable little girl). After our cuddles her mother put her in a front pouch and jumped on the back of a motorbike with her 4 year old  son, husband and mum...it will never cease to amaze me what they can fit on a motorbike. After three days at the beach we made our way to the french riverside town off Kampot for an overnight  stay. Arriving in the afternoon we biked around the crumbling city and decided to do a sunset tour on the river. After our tour we found a  restaurant run by kiwis and had our first roast New Zealand lamb in what seemed like years. The next morning we were on the road again, 2 hours later we were back on the coast in the stunning seaside fishing village of Kep. Kep is famous in Cambodia for its seafood and crab, restaurants line part of the shore where you can sit and literally watch the fisherman catching your meal.  The sea breeze was a welcome change, in this lush paradise that I imagined was not dissimilar to Mission Bay 50 years ago (just a cambodian version). Kep was the "it" place for the french and wealthy cambodians before the war, and still hasn't fully recovered but is well on its way. It sees only 50 tourists per high season and the locals are so eager to learn english. The children wave out to you every time you pass, people are so willing to help and ask questions about where we have come from, you barely have to smile at someone and they beam at you as though you are long lost family and its an invitation to improve their english skills. We met a young a man working at our guest house who had been learning english for 5 months and he was amazing. He travelled to Kampot once a week for an hour to his english  lessons, and he had 1 million questions for Mike and I. He was from a family of 5 and his parents could only afford to educate the oldest  son ($5 US tuition fee a day) however he was glad he didn't have to carry the burden of having to do well really well at uni to please his hardworking parents. As we continued chatting our van to take us across the boarder into Vietnam arrived, and like many of the Cambodian men our new friend swung Mikes 22kg pack across his 155cm and 60kg frame and hiked off towards the van saying "don't worry its not heavy, its good practice for me because Im going to learn english and travel the world". Within that sentence I later realised it was the perfect metaphor for this country and summary of our visit here, he spoke on behalf of all young Cambodian's translating to ...our past is heavy but we can carry it, the weight helps us realise how easy reaching our potential can be. Mike and I are officially in love with these people, there smiles, friendliness, positivity and resilience far outweigh the negative of Cambodia.

Days 57 - 60 Siem Reap

I have found it very difficult to begin this particular blog post...there is so many things to say and very few words to explain the emotion experienced. I wont begin with the gut retching poverty you probably wont want to read on and I don't blame you. We almost didn't come to this country, I  wanted to close my eyes to it all and selfishly surround my  self with positive things. We came though and we found out something unexpected... that behind a recent dark history, and the poverty lays a country with a powerful and captivating ancestry, impressive architecture and culture, and beautiful people that want to show you their amazing country. Siem Reap proved to be a jewel in the rough  somewhere that is fast becoming one of  the most famous tourist destinations in the world. We stayed at the lovely Soria Maria hotel for four nights and enlisted the help of the fantastic Mr. Yang Sam Rach who drove us around ancient Angkor for 3 days in his tuk tuk. The ancient Angkor region just out of Siem Reap is made up of over 45 known temples and buildings rediscovered in the early 1900s completely overgrown by the thick jungle. The restoration process is still going on today and the magnificent temples have survived several wars, looting, the time of evil  Pol Pot, and neglect to become one of the 7 man made wonders of the world. The temples are believed to be constructed from around 900AD onwards and still survive to tell their tale  explaining the existence of the powerful and inspiring Khmer people that created this empire. Like the pyramids its hard to comprehend how these architectural masterpieces were constructed without modern technology. Almost every inch of stone is carved depicting scenes of everyday life, worshipping the Khmer Gods and religion. Huge lions, elephants and serpents guard the entrance of temples while the faces of huge buddhas look at you from every direction. The huge constructions, the carving and conscriptions along with the huge roots of silk trees intertwined through the stone make some of these temples magical and spiritual. Of all the temples we saw Mike and I enjoyed the famous Angkor Wat the best, watching the sun set over one of the libraries as the night insects AKA Gods sung in the trees. Siem Reap is not only about the temples...markets, amazing food, music, quad bike riding through villages, yummy bakeries, and the people make this place hum. They close down the main street "pub street" in the evening to all traffic and it just comes alive with the restaurants, bars, music, night markets, and hilarious tuk tuk drivers fighting for your business. However its obviously not all cotton candy and one third of the population lives on less than 40c a day. To put it bluntly the poverty is depressing, the street children's only chance of survival is to beg and manipulate the tourists. Dishevelled and dirty young mothers cary the new borns across their fronts in scarfs...rotting teeth and very thin due to lack of food or drug addictions they clasp their hands in prayer begging for money. Children as young as 4 walk the streets alone looking for cans or glass bottles, little girls tug at your clothes as they offer their postcards, scarfs, bracelets, and cold drinks. Land mine victims play their instruments and look at you with big hopeful black eyes. The feeling of helplessness is awful and the Cambodian government doesn't seem to be helping (the opposite of the dol pushing government I grew up with). Handing out money to the children keeps them on the street fuelling substance abuse or worse still goes to bastard pimps. Mike and I managed to distract them with games, naughts and crosses in the dust, fresh water, coco cola, food, sometimes they just wanted humour...something to brighten their repetitive days or something that got their intelligent little brains ticking. The children that gathered around the temples selling their wears knew every trick in the book, knew the basics of so many different languages that they had learnt from tourists, had the most beautiful smiles and knew who was the "weakest" amoung us. It got to a point where after what seem likes hours of following you around begging you to buy their wears they offer you "$10 for NOTHING" even though it lightens the situation it doesn't make the lump in my throat and the ache in my heart go away. The Khmer Rouge, evil Pol Pot and Vietnam war really hurt this country but the people are so resilient and positive. We are so glad that we have had the opportunity to visit Cambodia and learn about the history and culture of these people. Knowledge is power and maybe if we all have the knowledge and visit this awesome country we can have the power to help,  even if its in a small way. If you want to learn more about Cambodia's history read "First they killed my father" by Loung Ung its a powerful true story about a little girl trying to survive the brutality  of the Khmer Rouge Army.  

Day 55-56 Phnom Penh (Cambodia)

We were prepared for a big day as we crossed from Laos into Cambodia. After a long wait at the Cambodian boarder we crossed the bumpy countryside to Kratie where we enjoyed 1 nights stop over. The next morning at 6.30am we boarded a van with 13 other people for our journey to Phnom Penh. It was absolutely unbelievable how many people they could squeeze onto transport, Mike was pure entertainment for some of the Cambodians who thought it was hallirous how his legs wouldn't fit behind the seats (he ended up having to sit on the bags). Upon arriving in the chaotic and messy Cambodian capital we were spotted by a few "tourist spotters" on motorbikes who followed the van until it stopped. I was a little panicked when 10 men started banging on the windows and yelling at us all before the van stopped...sitting on the bags had its pros as we had a quick escape route out the back doors. I was actually pleasantly surprised once we got out, most of the yelling was directed at the locals in our van and we were generally treated with a "don't scare the white people too much" attitude. The first tuk tuk driver that approached us took us to our guest house for $2, my fists and wrists ached afterwards from hanging on so tight. Our days in Phnom Pehn were mostly educational, Cambodia has a horrific past history something we had very little knowledge of. We visited the S21 prison and learnt about the evil Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge, I'm not going to go into any detail about that. It actually left us wanting to know more and helped us understand why Cambodia is like it is today. The poverty and homelessness was to say the least distressing, but these people are so friendly and gentle. There sense of humour is fantastic and they smile no matter what, they are beautiful. We made sure we spent quite a bit of time at good cause dining restaurants and shops like "Friends". This place takes in older street children, gives them accommodation and trains them in hospitality, the food is amazing and the kids even better. Phnom Penh full of narrow dusty streets, food vendors and markets, tuk tuk drivers approach you on every corner as dirty children drag plastic bags in search of cans along the road, the huge riverfront park is full of people exercising, and practicing martial art as huge pictures of the king and queen hang over them, the smell of fish and noodle soup fills the air as motorbikes whizz past. This city was a culture shock and history lesson it left us wanting to learn more and see more. However a feeling of immense helplessness that has developed and the word "big softie" that the beggars and children see on my forehead is going to cause a few more tears. 

Day 52 - 54 Don Kon

We have on quite a few occasions become flash packers...opting for a flight rather than a long bus ride. So in one of our flash packer days we took a flight from Luang Prabang to Paske in Southern Laos. Our time in Paske was limited as we were off to find the hospital to remove my stitches and then to the bus stop to travel four hours south to an arena know as 4000 Islands. Here the Mekong widens and you can find thousands of islands in the middle. Our hospital search in Paske was another memorable experience and for some reason our tuk tuk driver took us to the Vet, apparently a Vet is as good as a doctor in Laos. After our trip to the real hospital we were on our way to the bus terminal where we boarded a local bus (a converted lorry truck). There were already 30 people on board with more climbing on the roof and others hanging out the back, I now know why a noticeable amount of Asians fall asleep on transport...it's a coping mechanism and the only polite thing to do instead of steering at the other passenger 1 inch away from your face. Sharing our trip with bananas, sacks of rice, and sleeping children we travelled three hours of red dirt roads, and made a few stops for "meats on stick" until we made it to the jetty to get over to one of the main islands Don Det. We decided not to stay at Don Det as we had heard of more local experiences at its neighbouring smaller island Don Kon. We were so glad that we had made that decision as upon getting to Don Kon we were greeted with the most beautiful sunset of the trip on the shores of the Mekong.  We stayed at the Floating Studio an amazing room literally floating on the river, and it was actually quite difficult to drag ourselves off the deck. Once we could pull ourselves away we explored Don Det top to toe, the waterfalls, the villages, bike paths, and scanned the river for dolphins. We were almost the only tourists there and felt as though we blended into local life. The Laos children and families on the island were the happiest I had ever seen. Every one worked on the land, big families meant more help around the properties and little 5 year old girls would be doing their difficult chores with such precession that all Mike and I could do was steer in amazement. Each family had at least 2 pigs, many chickens, 2 dogs, 2 cats, 1 kitten, 2 cows, 5 children, 1 bicycle or motorbike for the entire family to share and on occasion the dog. Mike and I would just sit in the family run restaurants observing their family life, the coming and goings, the laughter, the lady's at work washing clothes in the river, the dusty bare bumed children playing with kittens, men dragging fishing nets up the bank. We really hope that life in this beautiful little place only changes for the better and no too much from where it stands today, life in one of its most simplest and purest forms.

Day 49 - 51 Luang Prabang

A world heritage city surrounded by the Mekong, slightly crumbling french villas and bright flowers line the narrow streets, a mixture of freshly baked baguettes and laos fried bananas fill the air, monks walk the street with their umbrellas trying to hide from the hot sun, the local children play in groups on the street and families on bicycles whizz by. Luang Prabang's French history and truly amazing residents makes this beautiful city one of the best in South East Asia. Mike and I couldn't believe our luck when we arrived from Vang Vieng as the sun was setting. Our drive over the mountain that day once again revealed authentic and basic Laos village life and we were not expecting Luang Prabang to be so...boutiquey so Asian European and yet so close to the hill tribes. The accommodation we had booked the day before via agoda turned out to be a really goody. Mansion Duabula was set in the pretty residential quarter of Luang Prabang but only a 5 minute bike ride to town. The gardens and Lilly ponds were amazing and could be attributed to the hardworking caretaker who was out there everyday working his 70 year old butt off, complete with a huge smile and bamboo hat. On our days here we took the free bikes and rode around town, explored the night market (one of the best and tranquil we have experienced) watched the monks in their monasteries, and visited the waterfalls surrounding the town. Our tuk tuk driver ( who became our regular for our stay and of course looked like he had won the lotto everytime he saw us) took us out to the waterfalls one morning back through animal run streets and laughing children. Here we visited the Bear sanctuary which has been set up to rehabilitate bears that have been captured and used on the black market. It was distressing to see bears who had been kept in very small cages for the first years of their lives and used for their bile. Some of the bears were stunted, some very very slow and wobbly (they have never experienced so much space and freedom of movement). The other Sun bears who had been at the Sanctuary longer where well on their way to happier lives, beautiful and healthy, full of character and play fighting. The Bear Sanctuary is truly a fantastic organization, it just astounds me how cruel some human beings can be. After watching the bears we made our way up to the waterfalls...they didn't look real. Icy cold water cascading down into a  bright colour blue I have never really seen in the water before, it was almost like a movie set. Mike enjoyed his first cold swim this entire trip and jumping of the rope swing. After our Bear and waterfall day it was back into town for a salami baguette and carrot cake.  The food in Luang Prabang was awesome, by day it was French patisseries and by night it was the night market where you can fill a plate with the freshest local foods for 10,000kip each ($1.50)...we can't rave about this city well Laos in general enough. 

Day 46 - 48 Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is a mountain haven that has developed so much more than its neighbouring communities due to the tourists who visit for the experience of "tubbing" - floating down the Mekong river on the inner tube of a tractor tyre and visiting the many bars, rope swings, and slides that are popping up everyday. Like me you have probably heard the horror stories of the magical yet potentially life threatening tubbing world so as we approached the river that afternoon we had manifested into the perfect tubbing candidates...excited, eager and wearing our sensible/cautious hat...or so we thought. 6 hours later little Laos children were making an absolute killing from our 2 pairs of jandels, 2pairs of sunnies, a watch, a singlet and the 3 cameras we literally saw floating past. Mike and Bec's tubbing experience also resulted in our water lodged camera, 5 stitches and a fractured cheekbone. Let me start at the very beginning... After crossing the river on a pulley system we were greeted at the first mad bar AKA "booze shack" with a friendship bracelet and were not allowed to enter until we had a shot of whisky. We met so many great people, played some crazy games and shared our travel stories until we were off down the river holding hands. The next thing you know locals dressed in spiderman outfits are throwing out ropes and pulling us into their bars. I cant explain how cool it is drifting down the river with a tribe of other mad tourists, with the stunning view of limestone cliffs in the distance. The tubbing experience was  exhilarating and the rest of the day was filled with  dancing and floating along the Mekong river until...my sensible hat fell off and I managed to slip and knock myself out. Of course after my extreme paranoia that something was going to happen it did. The result...5 stitches to the gash on my forehead, a very swollen eye and a possible fractured cheekbone. I soldered on though and with the help of Mike got back in my tube and floated down the river (no more bar stops) until it got dark, made our way back to shore for a tuk tuk into town. In town it was a hospital stop for stitches (really wasn't a pleasant experience) pizza with our tubbing friends and then home to bed with a few painkillers. We wont forget our tubbing experience in a hurry the scar will always remind me of the fun we had, however it was a swift reminder of how easily accidents can happen even when your not jumping off sky high jumping platforms into murky water, or drunkedly swimming across the river without your tube like some idiots. Becs lesson of the day: "don't worry about the other idiots just worry about yourself". Unfortunately i didn't venture out for the rest of our stay the embarrassment of the state of my face put a stop to that, however Mike enjoyed watching the All Blacks beat Ireland in the "Irish Shack". The group of irish devised a game in which every time the all blacks scored they got a free shot (the irish  owner happily obliged) anything for a free drink. By half time everyone was very happy when NZ scored.  Mikes Lesson of the day "the irish will happily cheer for the All Blacks over their own country if they get free drinks out of it" however I think we all already knew that. 

Day 45 Bangkok to Vang Vieng (Laos)

We were actually quite excited about an overnight train...we had this little booth closed of from our neighbours by a curtain. The booth magically transformed into top & bottom bunk and came equip with clean pillows and blankets. We made sure we brought ear plugs and eye masks to drone out the loud old train and block out the lights. We actually got about  6 hours of relatively comfortable sleep and arrived in Nong Khawi , Thailand 14 hours later. Getting over  the boarder was easy it was the rip off artists on the other side that were the difficult part and suddenly getting used to the Lao Kip. $1 Aus is about $7500 Kip so when bus drivers were shouting out figures in hundreds of thousands it took a while to process while suddenly they were picking up our bags and dumping them in the back of their minivans. We finally made it to Vientiane the capital of Laos about 40 min later  in search of a bus to Vang Vieng. The trip to Vang Veing would take about 4 hours and according to our guide book cost no more than $60,000kip each. The first quote we got was $100,00 and when we showed him the figure in the guide book he just laughed and told us it was an old book. Something was a bit fishy so we decided to ask some fellow travelers who were  also heading in our direction. They said they had been waiting for 2 hours  for the mini bus to Vang Vieng which they had paid $50,000kip each for but the driver was looking for more passengers. The man who wanted to charge us $100,000 each was still hanging around and suddenly dropped his price to $60,000.  After a lot of work we finally got down to $50,000 but were told we had to leave NOW. All four of us got into the small minivan and thought  we were on our way...until we had to get into another van and proceeded to guesthouses picking up more people. We learnt that the other passengers had only paid $35,000kip each through their guesthouses. Lesson of the day in Laos..."Try and organize all transportation through your guesthouse". It didn't take long and the driver stopped for food in which we took the opportunity to try Laos Soup...a clear broth with roast pork, chicken sausage and noodles, accompanied with a large plate of green vegetables and herbs that you add yourself. Back in the van and we suddenly found ourself on a dirt road winding up into the hills...it was a journey with plenty to look at. Slowing down for old  woman in bamboo hats herding their cattle, young woman carrying babies on their backs and water containers on their heads, stopping for ducks, chickens, goats and pigs to cross the road, naked children playing in fits of laughter, the view of huge limestone cliffs in the distance, rice fields bordered by small huts and villages. It was breathtakingly beautiful, by all means they have non existent monetary wealth, but yet so so much wealth in the land, in the community and in those unbelievably happy children.  

Day 41 - 44 Bangkok

Our trip from Koh Tao to Bangkok was another biggie, a 2 hour ferry coupled with a 9 hour bus ride. Arriving in Bangkok late at night in the pouring rain just added to our confusion, this city was enormous and so spread out. It was even a bit of a challenge for the experienced and talented map reader/direction sensor among us...aka Mike.  After joining up with fellow travelers who were heading to the same area as us we shared one speeding, horn honking, aggressive, rally driving taxi to Sukhumvit. We stayed at a B&B called Room@bangkok where each room is individually decorated, and all its furnishings match its name. We stayed in the very cool & quirky black rose room. Our  next few days in Bangkok were really a mixture of two things...shopping & eating. We walked basically non stop from 9am to 5pm at the amazing and huge Chatuchak markets. This place is over 20acres of stalls ranging from vintage clothes to animals, from artwork to plants. We were in awe at the  share range of things and the unbelievable price that we ended up having to box and ship back our purchases to NZ. We visited the Patpong markets, and tried to avoid the ladyboys and young thai women in underwear. We explored the huge MBK mall in Siam and the Siam markets. We got lost in the gourmet food market at the very fancy Pagoda mall. The food selection at this  place was amazing, the heavily decorated cupcakes and cakes were the best I have ever seen. Mike and I sat down to a "pick & mix" fresh salad (that consisted of everything you would ever  dream of putting in a salad) and a bounty bar cake!!! On our last day in this shopping addiction fueling, crazy smog breathing, land of 10 million motorbike city we spent some time at the post office shipping our purchases home, and prepared ourselves for our overnight train journey to Laos.

Day 38 - 40 Koh Tao

Big big statement "I think Koh Tao might be our top Thai Island". Known almost solely for diving but with so much more to offer... its touristy enough to have all the mod cons and award winning restaurants but its almost perfectly balanced with the untouched element and uninterrupted local life. I suppose all the Thai Islands are like this but Koh Tao or Turtle Island was our exact cup of tea.  We stayed at Samatha Bed & Breakfast about a 5 minute walk from the beach and "main strip" in Sairee. Recently opened this place was all concrete floors and corrugated iron. Like a factory fitted out as a home with rustic finishings, quirky add ons, and just enough charm...it was so cool and inspired us to draw our dream home in the sand on the beach one day. The staff where all smiles and made the best banana pancakes ever. To our surprise it was all go on this little island and every day after an early breakfast our bags were packed and we were off on our motorbike. We soon learnt why all the motorbikes had huge tyres...the paths to all the best beaches/dive spots where off road riding at its best. With a map in hand we maneuvered our way over mountains, steep and rocky dirt paths, and through the jungle. The first steep and muddy hill we encountered I actually got off the bike and walked just so Mike had the chance to prove it was actually possible to get down. We discovered some amazing beaches like picture perfect Mango Bay, shark Island, Hin Wong Bay which felt almost prehistoric with its huge boulders and strange looking glowing fish. We got lost several times in the middle of no where and had a couple of close calls but Mikes long legs saved the day as he was able to get them to ground before we flew off, but it was still so much fun. For a perfect end to a day of motor cross, beach exploring and snorkeling there was nothing better than a spot of shopping followed by baked barracuda stuffed with feta and cherry tomatoes and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice BLISS!