So we got the night bus upto Bangkok which wasn't too bad until we got of the coach and there were taxi drivers swarmed around the door of the coach asking where we were going. They remained in a swarm around us while we got our bags and even when we were reading in the lonely planet about where we were going to go they were looking over our shoulder. This was pretty traumatic after 12 hours trying to sleep on a coach! In the end we got a taxi across Bangkok to the Airport Hotel we decided to stay in before our flight to Phnom Penh. We had a pretty boring day of reading and a cheap dinner of pot noodles in our room. A highlight was watching Thai MTV, they love Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga! lol.
The following day it was 'Songkran' day, Thai New Year so there was supposed to be water fights all aroudn Bangkok but they had been cancelled because of the political unrest. However, we did see a few people with water guns on the way to the Airport. We arrived in Phnom Penh in the afternoon and got a taxi to our hotel, Top Banana Guesthouse. There were two flights of really steep stairs which were a challenge with our increasingly heavy bags! lol. We then spent a few days in Phnom Penh seeing the sights. First we saw the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, then we went to S-21, this school that the Khmer Rouge converted into a prison. It has pretty much been left as it was, we saw the bedframes they chained prisoners to, the old school PE equipment they used to torture people and a set of old classrooms filled with photographs of the prisoners. They imprisoned Intellectuals and their families, tortured confessions out of them, then sent them to the Killing Fields to be executed and buried in mass graves. We also visited the Killing Fields, you can walk around the edge of the graves they've excavated but all around the outside there are mass graves that haven't been excavated. Also, the stuff that has been found (clothes, skulls and bones) have been displayed in a Stupor, a buddhist grave type thing.
We were in Phnom Penh over Khmer New Year so alot of stuff was shut but we did find an amazing cafe which had an AMAZING range of sandwich filling, which I have been missing! lol. We left Phnom Penh by bus and travelled to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat, the 8th wonder of the world! Siem Reap is one of the most touristy places in Cambodia and because of how recent the Khmer Rouge was and how many landmines remain throughout the Cambodia there are loads of beggars with missing limbs. Also, because Cambodia is still so poor parents force their children on to the streets to sell things and to beg. On the plus side, there is initiatives which you can give money to in the knowledge it's going to the right places, for example, in the town we're in at the moment you can but paintings the children do and they get given money without begging or selling things on the streets.
We planned to see Angkor Wat for sunrise 'the done thing' and so woke up at about 4.30 and met our driver for the day. Angkor wat was pretty incredible but my favourite was either Angkor Thom, these ancient ruins of a city, or Ta Prohm, where trees grew through all the ruins. We came back to meet our driver after Ta Prohm and couldn't see him anywhere, eventually we recognised our tuk-tuk and he was asleep in it! All the other drivers were laughing and he woke up pretty sheepish! lol. The last stop of the day was this temple where we were to watch the sun go down (except that it was overcast so there was no sun to watch go down! lol) and we rode an elephant up the hill to the temple, it was AMAZING!
After Siem Reap we decided to take a boat journey from Siem Reap to Battambang where you are supposed to be able to see floating villages and endangered birdlife. We saw all these things in the first hour, which was really cool! However, more and more people got onto the boat each time we went through a village and we were all so cramped! I've never had such a numb bum in all my life! lol Whats more, we were told the journey would take 6/7 hours but it ended up taking ELEVEN because it is just before the rainy season and the river is really low. So low that the boast kept getting stuck and some people got off and walked four about half an hour. We were pretty weary of this because the worst place for landmines is on flood plains! NO THANKS lol. When we finally arrived in Battambang I lugged my bag onto my back and trudged up this hill to the road where we met a tuk-tuk driver called Mr.Tim who took us to our hotel. We were pretty traumatised by the journey and spent a day recovering (our hotel had a pool, YAY! lol) The following day we planned for Mr.Tim to pick us up. He showed us round this temple which had been used as a prison under the Khmer Rouge and described how when they took over everyone was forced to live in the countryside and to farm rice which they weren't allowed to eat. He also told us how girls were made to be nurses and were the only people who could provide any sort of healthcare. The converted temples into hospitals and used pepsi bottles to administer what they were told was medicine through a drip. Mr. Tim then told us that that is how his mother died and that he had lived through the Khmer Rouge, he was an incredible man to have met!
We arrived in Sihanoukville the day before yesterday by coach (ten way more comfortable hours! lol) and have been staying in a really cool place called Monkey Republic, they support all the good causes around the town (we have a picture from the above mentioned charity in our room! lol) It is run by four guys from Cambridgeshire and there is 2 free TV rooms where you can borrow and watch DVDs for free. Today we watched Marion and Geoff, it was really funny!
I am fully aware I have not done justice to Cambodia in this blog, its been incredible and there is too much to write in one sitting!
xxxxx
Sunday 25 April 2010
Saturday 10 April 2010
Malaysian and Thai Islands
We had a nice flight to Langkawi and got a taxi to our hotel, we had a room with a bathroom, nice! lol. Langkawi is a cool place, there were lots of restaurants and little shops. The beach itself was amazing, we spent four nights. One was spent celebrating Emma's Birthday! We had a walk along the street trying to find some sort of nice bar to no avail! We were steadily making our way back to the hotel when we heard music coming from the beach and found that THAT's where all the nightlife is! From Langkawi we booked a ferry and onward transport upto the Thai island of Koh Lanta. This made for a pretty long journey!
We were picked up from the hotel in Langkawi at 7.30 from a ferry at 9, when we arrived in Satun, the first of the Thai Islands and we're ferried on to a pick-up truck with benches, they're called Saammlaws! This took us as far as a bus station where we were told to get on a bus so we waited until 12 when we boarded this bus which was going to take us to Krabi. When we were boarding the bus the ticket lady made us all sit in seats according to where we were going which consequented in moving nearly everyone around, it was LOL-worthy! The journey to Krabi was 2 hours then we were to get a minibus the next 2 hours to Koh Lanta. Between Krabi and Koh Lanta we were sat at the back of this minibus and when we eventually arrived in Koh Lanta we were the last people left on the bus after a while and the driver started making all these drop offs of deliveries and was getting paid every time he stopped to drop something off. By this point we were very exasperated!
However, when we eventually arrived at Bee Bee's bungalows it was like a dream! We asked the guy where a cash machine was because it was our first stop in Thailand and we didn't have and Baht and he said 'slow, slow! Don't worry!' So, for the next 5 nights we stayed in a bungalow by the beach (under 15GBP for all of us! :)) and did alot of reading. I finished Oliver Twist and read both Alice In Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass...'Why is a raven like a writing desk?' LOLz. The people at Bee Bee's were really friendly, it was run by this guy called an who every morning spent about half an hour playing with a boomerang on the beach, hitting various trees and bungalows and the occasional near miss of a guest! lol.
Next stop was Ko Phi Phi, where they filmed the beach, the prices were higher and it was FULL of british yobs and all sorts. When we arrived the guy showing us to our hotel carried our bags all the way in the mid-day heat all the way on this trolley thing! By the time we got there we were boiling and he got us some water, NICE. We ate in this bookshop-cafe before checking into our room, after which we spent the afternoon on the beach, even more perfect than Koh Lanta, check facebook for the pics!
The following day we woke up ready to part with some cash in order to sea the secluded spots of Ko Phi Phi Don and it's uninhabited, neighbouring island, Ko Phi Phi Ley. However, when we came out of our room the guy from the hotel (a different guy to bag guy!lol) he said there was going to be a TSUNAMI! But we were safe because our hotel was up from the beach, so we sat waiting, it was very surreal, we had no idea what was going on, then a police announcer came round saying there was no risk of tsunami. So, we had some breakfast and booked a boat trip (we weren't too worried because apparently they've had 3 tsunami warnings in the last week with nothing happening!) The boat tour we got was with two other couples and a family, we all squeezed into this longtail boat and set off out of the main bay. The first stop was Monkey Bay, where there are monkeys on the rocks, people crowded round taking photos and stuff until one big monkey started attacking this little one, it was brutal! Then, one guy tried to touch one of the monkeys and he slapped him and ran after him, grabbing at his leg! Everyone ran pretty swiftly, the monkeys had TURNED! lol. Also, we haven't had a vaccination against Rabies, so were staying well back! We then went to Ko Phi Phi Ley and stopped in one little cove to swim for a while and then another one where we snorkelled. The snorkelling was really cool, there was this massive fish with all different coloured patches on it as well as a big pouty mouth! Also, the boat-man threw crisps in for the fish around the boat and these stripey fish surrounded all of us! Finally, we stopped at Maya Bay, the beach from 'The Beach,' it has got to be the best beach i have ever seen, the sand was like powder and the water was bright turquoise! On the way back we saw the sunset over the horizon, it was an eventful day! lol.
We woke up in the morning and checked out, it was a BOILING hot day and so we were relieved to hear that we could come back the hotel and get our bags taken down to the port in order to get our ferry upto Phuket. We had time to waste so sat in the bookshop-cafe where they served the most amazing sandwich, it had cheese, cream cheese, bacon, ham, onion lettuce and tomato! Then we boarded the ferry and were pretty euphoric when we realised it was air-conditioned! We arrived at our Phuket hotel at about half 4 and immediately did washing so that it would be dry by this morning, there were three washing lines fashioned using chairs bags, windows and a wardrobe door, as well as some strategically placed fans. We turned the room into quite and obstacle course! lol. After this we went out to book a bus the Bangkok and managed to find the bus terminal where we realised we could haggle the price! We got one for about 11GBP which leaves at 6.3o tonight and arrives at 6AM tommorow in Bangkok. Then we went in search of food and wandered around thirsty and hungry for TWO hours, Phuket town seems pretty empty and is lacking in amenities! We ended up in an expensive italian where we just ate some some starters and water and then headed off to bed!
The Next few days, when we get to Bangkok we have one night and then a flight the following afternoon in Cambodia, however, we have accidentally booked a flight on Thai New Year where Bangkok turns into a giant waterfight! Fingers crossed all will go to plan with making it the airport and Phom Penh on the 13th!
xxx
(sorry to all the adults for all the spelling and grammatical mistakes!)
We were picked up from the hotel in Langkawi at 7.30 from a ferry at 9, when we arrived in Satun, the first of the Thai Islands and we're ferried on to a pick-up truck with benches, they're called Saammlaws! This took us as far as a bus station where we were told to get on a bus so we waited until 12 when we boarded this bus which was going to take us to Krabi. When we were boarding the bus the ticket lady made us all sit in seats according to where we were going which consequented in moving nearly everyone around, it was LOL-worthy! The journey to Krabi was 2 hours then we were to get a minibus the next 2 hours to Koh Lanta. Between Krabi and Koh Lanta we were sat at the back of this minibus and when we eventually arrived in Koh Lanta we were the last people left on the bus after a while and the driver started making all these drop offs of deliveries and was getting paid every time he stopped to drop something off. By this point we were very exasperated!
However, when we eventually arrived at Bee Bee's bungalows it was like a dream! We asked the guy where a cash machine was because it was our first stop in Thailand and we didn't have and Baht and he said 'slow, slow! Don't worry!' So, for the next 5 nights we stayed in a bungalow by the beach (under 15GBP for all of us! :)) and did alot of reading. I finished Oliver Twist and read both Alice In Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass...'Why is a raven like a writing desk?' LOLz. The people at Bee Bee's were really friendly, it was run by this guy called an who every morning spent about half an hour playing with a boomerang on the beach, hitting various trees and bungalows and the occasional near miss of a guest! lol.
Next stop was Ko Phi Phi, where they filmed the beach, the prices were higher and it was FULL of british yobs and all sorts. When we arrived the guy showing us to our hotel carried our bags all the way in the mid-day heat all the way on this trolley thing! By the time we got there we were boiling and he got us some water, NICE. We ate in this bookshop-cafe before checking into our room, after which we spent the afternoon on the beach, even more perfect than Koh Lanta, check facebook for the pics!
The following day we woke up ready to part with some cash in order to sea the secluded spots of Ko Phi Phi Don and it's uninhabited, neighbouring island, Ko Phi Phi Ley. However, when we came out of our room the guy from the hotel (a different guy to bag guy!lol) he said there was going to be a TSUNAMI! But we were safe because our hotel was up from the beach, so we sat waiting, it was very surreal, we had no idea what was going on, then a police announcer came round saying there was no risk of tsunami. So, we had some breakfast and booked a boat trip (we weren't too worried because apparently they've had 3 tsunami warnings in the last week with nothing happening!) The boat tour we got was with two other couples and a family, we all squeezed into this longtail boat and set off out of the main bay. The first stop was Monkey Bay, where there are monkeys on the rocks, people crowded round taking photos and stuff until one big monkey started attacking this little one, it was brutal! Then, one guy tried to touch one of the monkeys and he slapped him and ran after him, grabbing at his leg! Everyone ran pretty swiftly, the monkeys had TURNED! lol. Also, we haven't had a vaccination against Rabies, so were staying well back! We then went to Ko Phi Phi Ley and stopped in one little cove to swim for a while and then another one where we snorkelled. The snorkelling was really cool, there was this massive fish with all different coloured patches on it as well as a big pouty mouth! Also, the boat-man threw crisps in for the fish around the boat and these stripey fish surrounded all of us! Finally, we stopped at Maya Bay, the beach from 'The Beach,' it has got to be the best beach i have ever seen, the sand was like powder and the water was bright turquoise! On the way back we saw the sunset over the horizon, it was an eventful day! lol.
We woke up in the morning and checked out, it was a BOILING hot day and so we were relieved to hear that we could come back the hotel and get our bags taken down to the port in order to get our ferry upto Phuket. We had time to waste so sat in the bookshop-cafe where they served the most amazing sandwich, it had cheese, cream cheese, bacon, ham, onion lettuce and tomato! Then we boarded the ferry and were pretty euphoric when we realised it was air-conditioned! We arrived at our Phuket hotel at about half 4 and immediately did washing so that it would be dry by this morning, there were three washing lines fashioned using chairs bags, windows and a wardrobe door, as well as some strategically placed fans. We turned the room into quite and obstacle course! lol. After this we went out to book a bus the Bangkok and managed to find the bus terminal where we realised we could haggle the price! We got one for about 11GBP which leaves at 6.3o tonight and arrives at 6AM tommorow in Bangkok. Then we went in search of food and wandered around thirsty and hungry for TWO hours, Phuket town seems pretty empty and is lacking in amenities! We ended up in an expensive italian where we just ate some some starters and water and then headed off to bed!
The Next few days, when we get to Bangkok we have one night and then a flight the following afternoon in Cambodia, however, we have accidentally booked a flight on Thai New Year where Bangkok turns into a giant waterfight! Fingers crossed all will go to plan with making it the airport and Phom Penh on the 13th!
xxx
(sorry to all the adults for all the spelling and grammatical mistakes!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)