Holiday in Cambodia

I know it's been a while since I wrote a new post, but to be honest, I didn't have much to write for a while. After I got back to Bangkok and Paul headed back home, I just felt like taking a bit of downtime, which I did.

When we last left off, we were getting ready to go out for Paul's birthday. It ended up being a great time out on Khao San road, but luckily it wasn't nearly late or as crazy as our previous adventures there. After Paul took off the following day, I was kind of scratching my head wondering what to and where to go next... it's a lot easier travelling in small groups than it is solo over here. Funnily enough that afternoon I went down to the lobby and bumped into a couple friends I'd made back in the hostel I had stayed at in Budapest in December. Small world. I ended up hanging out with them here and there for the next few days which was fun. I didn't really feel like doing much sightseeing, so I mostly stuck to walking around to the markets and different neighbourhoods near my hostel during the day. I decided it was time to move on to the next country, so I chose Cambodia. I had to get a photo taken for my visa, so I went in search of one of the many camera shops I had seen on my previous outings. Unfortunately none of them would take my picture, including the ones that said “passport and visa pictures” on their signage, so I ended up walking for over an hour until I found one. As you can imagine, walking around in 35 degree heat in muggy Bangkok for an hour did not lead to the most flattering photo. I wish I had a scanner to share this photo because I basically look like a serial killer who got thrown into a pool at a party while dehydrated and perhaps punched in the face with a crack pipe. More or less.

Nevertheless, I flew into Phnom Penh (Cambodia's capital) on the Saturday. The drive from the airport to my hostel was something else. Back in November when my dad visited me in Italy, he was blown away by the chaotic driving. When I saw Thailand I chuckled at that because it was much worse. And then I got to Cambodia. That place takes the cake (so far) by leaps and bounds. I would rather ride motorcycle blindfolded in Rome than attempt to drive here. In theory there are lanes for traffic going both ways, but they are very much up for interpretation. Bikes, cars and tuk tuks all jockey for position as they drive, narrowly missing eachother by inches as they pass. And that's only the folks going the right way down a street. There are one-way streets and lanes seperated by medians, but if it is more convenient for a driver to go the wrong way to make a turn, then that's what they do. I quickly learned to stop watching for impending doom on the roads as a passenger, because the heart attack would kill me if the drivers didn't.

I got settled into my hostel and walked around for some exploring. I wasn't a huge fan of Phnom Penh. It's a lot poorer than Thailand, but thankfully a lot less overdeveloped too. There's only a few palaces and museums to see, which are apparently not as impressive as those in Bangkok so I didn't bother. The main tourist attractions are the killing fields and S21 prison, which I wasn't in the mood to see. So after a couple days, I hopped on a bus north to Siem Reap. I'll spare you the complaints about this bus, but if ever you're in Cambodia, do yourself a favour and spring for a “deluxe” or “vip” bus over a “standard”.

I arrived in Siem Reap after dark, but immediately warmed to it. The staff at my guest house were friendly and helpful. I had booked a room, but accidentally booked it for the following night. They only had their biggest room available, but were willing to give it to me for the price of the cheap room. I felt like royalty, having two king-sized beds and a private room to myself. A friend, Jamie, that I had made in Bangkok got in on the same evening, so we met up and hit Pub Street, the main nightlife drag in Siem Reap. Siem Reap is a little more touristy than Phnom Penh, but because of that it also means better facilities in general. It also means a lot of aggressive touts. I could not cross the street to get from my guesthouse to pub street without at least 4 tuk tuk drivers barking at me (“hello sir!”) to give me a lift. It got old real quick. I also came to learn that when I was with Jamie they would only offer us tuk tuk rides. When I was by myself at night, they would also offer drugs and prostitution. It got to the point where on my way from walking Jamie back to her hotel, as soon as a tuk tuk or motodop (motorcycle taxi) driver would approach me I wouldn't look up, I would just say “no tuk tuk, no ganja, no boom boom!”. They seemed to find this entertaining, but wouldn't push, so I kept that strategy when walking solo. There were also a lot of children begging/trying to sell crappy trinkets during the day. While sitting out at a restaurant, it wasn't unusual to get asked for money at least 5 times in different ways by different people. One amusing note on this is that most of the kids have a little script prepared based on where you are from. So a kid would ask where I'm from and when I'd tell him, he would respond robotically: “Canada. Capital: Ottawa (well shit...you already know more about it than most Americans I've met on this trip kid). Prime Minister: Stephen Harper. Biggest city: Toronto. Languages: English and French. Do you speak French? Bonjour. Capital of France: Paris...”. It was cute, but it can get pretty tiresome when all you want is a quiet meal in peace.

The main tourist attractions in Siem Reap are the temples. I have to admit, I wasn't in the mood to see these either so I think I'm the only tourist to ever visit the city and not go to any. I was happy walking around and just discovering the city on foot, strolling the city, especially along the river. Jamie's grandmother was in Cambodia with her, so one night the three of us went out for dinner on pub street. Jamie and I were feeling adventurous, so we got the Khmer bbq, which is a little contraption they bring to your table. It's gas powered and you cook your own food. It has a rim around the edges that you fill with water, vegetables, and noodles, and as you cook the meat in the middle, the juices drip down to create a tasty soup at the end. Those who know me won't be surprised to learn that it wasn't the ability to cook my own food that appealed to me. It was the food that we were cooking. We were given 5 different meats. Pork, beef, frog legs, cobra, and crocodile. I wasn't too impressed with the snake because it was very tough and chewy, but I did like the crocodile. Kind of like a slightly tougher pork. Siem Reap also has lots of massages, so we treated ourselves to a couple. I quickly learned you get what you pay for though, as we found one with a rather cheap price tag. The girl would basically just dig her thumbs in everywhere, which felt nice in some areas, but not necessarily the base of my spine. She seemed legitimately surprised that I winced in pain when she did that. Ah well. The other fun option is the fish massage, where you set your feet in a big tank of water full of fish. These fish eat at the dead and dry skin, leaving your feet uh...less dry and dead skin-ish? I lack the dermatological terminology. Anyways, they tickle like all hell and it's a really weird sensation as they just swarm your feet as soon as you dunk them. I felt bad for Jamie because I guess after months of being on the road, my feet were pretty dry. She had a dozen or so fish on each foot...I had the rest of the 200 or so.

Jamie had to fly back to Korea where she teaches English and I had had enough of Siem Reap, so I headed back down to Phnom Penh on Saturday. I was only planning on staying one night as stop over on my way down to the beach town Sihanoukville. However, in the morning I was talking to a couple of English guys who wanted to go to the Killing Fields and I decided I'd stay the extra day to see it. I'm glad I did, because we ended up having a very good, although sad at times, day. I've never had a day more violence-oriented day in my life I think. It started when we were still sitting out at the common area of the hostel. We could hear a Cambodian woman screaming from inside, but ignored it. It got louder and louder until all of a sudden the owner comes barging out with the woman's hair grasped in his hands, trying not to let her get a swipe at him with the mug she was wielding in her hand. He dragged her into one of the tuk tuks and yelled at the driver to take them away to wherever they went. We were kind of stunned, but shook it off as a lover's quarrel. Then about 10 minutes later the staff started shuttering and locking the entrance to the hostel and we quickly saw why...the woman had taken a motodop back on her own because she wasn't done screaming apparently. She just sat down at the table next to us and screamed at the top of her lungs for a solid 10 minutes, and just got louder when the owner finally got back. We took that as our cue to leave. The killing fields are a little out of town, so the tuk tuks tend to cost more. There's also another somewhat notorious tourist attraction out there that one of the Brits in particular wanted to go to, so even though it wasn't the most appropriate day for it, we started there nonetheless. Uh... you may want to just skip down to the start of the next paragraph mom. We went to the shooting range which has such a bizarre set up, it's almost comical. The employees sit you down at a table and bring you a menu. Except instead of food, each page has a different gun with its own price on it. Depending on how much money you want to spend, you can shoot anything from a handgun all the way up to a Rocket Propelled Grenade. Rumour has it that for extra money, you can go somewhere even further out and shoot said RPG at a cow... apparently Cambodia doesn't have much of an active PETA presence. Having never shot a gun before, I decided I'd give the shooting range a try and settled on the AK-47. My Brit friend chose a machine gun. It was an interesting experience, but now that I've done it I can't say I'm itching to fire a gun again. It was just more of a boys and their toys curiosity than anything. Impressively I actually hit the target with about half my rounds.

From there we went to the killing fields. This is where the Khmer Rouge regime would take prisoners by the truckload from the S21 prison and kill them with various rudimentary and horrific measures and bury them in mass graves. Walking around the fields was a very disturbing experience. Because of the heavy rainfall they get for half the year, there are still bones and clothes that come up through the soil every year. So as you walk on these paths you are actually walking over bones and torn clothes from the dead beneath you. It is very sobering. At the centre of the fields is a monument that is stacked with thousands of skulls and bones in a glass case. You can see that many of the skulls have fractures in them from being killed by blunt force trauma and missing teeth from torture.

After this, we went to the S21 prison, where the prisoners were held before being murdered. It used to be a school, but was turned into a prison where unspeakable torture took place. The very quick history is that the Khmer Rouge regime wanted to eliminate anybody with ties to the previous government or anybody they felt would threaten them, so they would imprison them, torture them, and eventually kill them and their families. This included women and children, as they wanted to minimize the chances of somebody coming for revenge later. Back at the killing fields there is actually a spot on a tree that is marred because that is where they would swing children by the feet to smash their skulls. I knew a bit of what to expect back when I visited the Dachau concentration camp, but this one took me completely by surprise because we didn't learn about this history in school. What really struck me was that it took place less than 10 years before I was born. If you want to read more about this, wikipedia explains it all a lot better than I can.

By the afternoon, we had gotten to know the tuk tuk driver we had hired, Tom, pretty well and he told us there was a Cambodian kickboxing match going on in the evening. We decided to go, so he took us there after S21. When we got to the hangar it was happening in, we looked around and saw that the bleachers were completely packed. I figured we'd have to stand for the whole show, but Tom quickly made his way to the gate next to the ringside seats and spoke a few words to the girl sitting there. She waved us right through and next thing I knew, we were sitting a row behind the timekeeper and announcers table, ringside! I have no idea how we got those seats or why we didn't have to pay, but I got the strong impression it had something to do with the colour of our skin. Either way, we sat back and enjoyed the fights. There were 5 in all and were quite entertaining. At one point a man came and sat in the row in front of us, just a few seats over. I noticed pretty much everybody, including the trainer in one corner started to glance over a lot. According to Tom this man was pretty much the biggest boxer in Cambodia. We had no clue who he was, but were nonetheless impressed to be sitting amongst the high society.

So after a long day we finally returned and had dinner and a couple drinks. That was last night. This morning I woke up and finally caught my bus to Sihanoukville. I just arrived a couple hours ago, but am already looking forward to reading a book or two on the beach. I'll let you know how that goes.

Photos from Siem Reap, the Shooting range, Killing Fields, S21 and boxing match.

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot or: how I learned to stop worrying and love the bucket

I had a great time in Phi Phi (pronounced pee pee - hehe). When we first got off the ferry it was a little daunting since we'd heard accommodations book up very fast on the island, and it's not uncommon for backpackers to have to turn around and get on the ferry going back since the whole island is full. Luckily we managed to find a little guesthouse for a decent price. The guesthouse itself was very basic – two beds, a fan, and a small bathroom, but that's all you really need since you're not there to stay inside. Our first day there we went up to the Phi Phi viewpoint, which had some spectacular views of the beach, which you can see in the pictures posted in the previous entry. The climb up is incredibly humbling though...it's about 15 minutes of climbing stairs that are very steep. That combined with the heat means you have to take your time. There are a couple places along the way where you can rest and buy some water, but of course the people that run these establishments are no fools and charge three times the normal rate for a bottle of water. It's unavoidable though, since I lost at least a water bottle's worth of sweat climbing up. Even people in much better shape than me (hard to imagine, I know) struggled. But it was well worth it to finally get there and observe the beaches below.

Phi Phi is a beautiful island, but it's very overdeveloped and crowded. There are no cars on Phi Phi, so there is lots of foot traffic, and some locals riding bikes, constantly shouting “beep beep” at the oblivious farangs (Thai for tourist) in their way. It's one of the more popular destinations for the young crowd. Luckily this also means it's not too hard to find some parties at night, which we did on our first night there. We even got into the spirit and bought a couple “buckets” which are basically small sand pails filled with a vile concoction of cola, red bull, and plenty of Thai whiskey. One is more than enough as we quickly discovered. They're not so bad at first, but once the ice starts to melt and the coke loses its fizz, it's just brutal. At night, there are fire shows along the beach, which are basically some Thai people juggling fire with various levels of expertise. Afterwords the beach bars blare music of all different tastes, so if you don't like one place, you can easily move on down to the next bar. One of my favourite memories from Phi Phi was on the walk home one night when Paul had drank one bucket too many (total: one bucket) and was given an impatient beep beep by a passing cyclist. For the rest of the way there, Paul managed to mimic the tone and cadence perfectly, shouting “beep beep” at anybody in front of us. Watching them jump out of the way was priceless. Sometimes this actually did get us around some slow pedestrians, but as often as not the people in front of us would be a good 5 yards in front of us and walking at the same pace. Guess you had to be there.

The following day was spent relaxing in the shade on the beach, where I managed to put a good dent into Rainbow Six, a 900 page tome that I conquered within a week. The great thing about most hostels is they have lots of book shelves, so when you're done your book, you can simply swap it for a new one.

On our third day, Paul and I did a boat tour that lasted all afternoon and took us to many different spots. The first was Monkey beach, where hundreds of tourists line up each day to take pictures of the monkeys that inhabit the beach. Then we went to a little bay with warm shallow water for a quick swim and to snack on some pineapple. After that we went to another bay to do some snorkeling where you can see many different tropical fish. I've only snorkeled once before and find it tough to breathe only through my mouth via a tube, but after a few minutes I got the hang of it. The trick is not to tilt your head too much, otherwise you get a nice throatful of sea water. After this we went to Maya Bat, which is famous in backpacker circles as the filming location for The Beach. Its appeal in the movie is its extreme seclusion. Now it's notoriously overrun with longboats and people, as you can see in some of the pictures. Pretty much every tour boat goes there, so it's not quite that special any more. The trip ended with enjoying the sunset on the water. At less than 10 dollars canadian, it was quite the deal.

After that it was just a lot of reading on the beach and checking out the nightlife. Luckily I managed to wake up early on Monday morning and caught the Superbowl, which was the first full football game I've seen since leaving. While it was a little slow at times, it was great watching the game, regardless of the time.

Finally on Friday we decided it was time to move on and came to Ao Nang, a smaller beach town on the south coast of the mainland. We booked a thatch hut guesthouse, which I think threw Paul off a bit. It's a nice spot and very social atmosphere, but the amenities are barebones at best. It reminds me a lot of Baboo's Gardens, the campground in the mountains of Jamaica that I've visited twice. I must admit I was a little unsure too when I heard some critters scurrying across the ceiling right above my bed in the middle of the night too, but thankfully nothing attacked me – that I know of.

So right now we're just waiting in Ao Nang to catch the bus back up to the belly of the beast – Bangkok. Unfortunately it's a 14 hour ride, so it'll be a long one. Paul's flying home on Tuesday, and I need to go there to finally get my new bank card sent. While there I may also apply for a visa to visit one of the neighbouring countries as well. I'm not sure where I'll be heading to after Bangkok, but when I do, I'll be sure to keep you posted. Later!

By the way, happy birthday mom! I wish I could have been there to celebrate with you. Love you!

Update – we made it to Bangkok after the terribly long bus ride. We managed to sleep a bit in some real beds upon arrival, so we're well rested. Which is good, since it's Paul's birthday tonight and we're gonna make it a good one. Beep Beep Bangkok!

Phi Phi pictures

I don't have time for a new post at the momnet, so in the meantime, here are some pics of Phi Phi
https://picasaweb.google.com/jeffwright.trip/PhiPhi#

This could be heaven or this could be hell

I wanted different, and I certainly got it! I left my hostel in London early Friday morning and went to Heathrow to catch my flight. The trip over was pretty uneventful. I flew on Air India and stopped over in Mumbai, but only for a couple hours. It took about 14 hours total, and with the time difference, I got into Bangkok early Saturday morning. It was kind of weird seeing two sunrises out the plane window in just over a half day. I took a few trains to my hostel and was impressed with myself for only really getting lost once. The hostel let me check in early and I pretty much slept all day. If ever you're in Bangkok, stay at the Saphai Pae Hostel. It was brand new, clean, friendly, and extremely cheap. One of the nicest hostels I've ever stayed in. That night, I made a few friends in the hostel and we decided to head out and explore a bit. About 20 minutes of walking later, we found the Silom night market, which was kinda crazy. Street vendors lined the sidewalks with everything from bootleg dvd's to clothes to various exotic foods. Along Silom are Sois, which are basically side streets. Down these sois are bars, massage shops (both legitimate and otherwise), restaurants, storefronts, etc. Wandering these sois gave us our first experience with the uglier side of Bangkok, since you can't take more than 5 steps without encountering a Thai person with a big fake smile on his face and something to sell you. They're pushy too, trying to get you in their tuk tuk or taxi, or shady bar (girls girls! Lots of young girls for you!). Needless to say, it was quite the culture shock. Before coming over, I'd heard as much as you have about Bangkok's sex industry, but it still didn't prepare me for what I saw. Seeing a 60 year old white guy walking down the street with a Thai girl on his arm that's no older than 13 is revolting and depressing the first time you see it. Unfortunately it doesn't get any easier to digest the 10^th time you see these human pieces of shit (ex-fats or sex-pats as they're referred to by us morally righteous backpackers) in the same night. Aside from this, I enjoyed my first night out, strolling the market and getting to know my new friends.

The following day I did some more exploring, seeing a few sights, but still tired from the jet lag. That night, we met Ian the rowdy Irishman in the hostel and a few towers of beer later, he said he knew a good party spot so the 5 of us crammed ourselves into a tiny tuk tuk and headed out. Turns out the party spot was Soi Cowboy, which is a street lined with go-go bars, which it turns out, are basically fronts for prostitution and an excuse to charge 7 times what a beer is worth. There we met Greg, a creepy sex-pat who wouldn't leave us alone. Here was a classic example of all that's wrong with people who come to Thailand for all the wrong reasons. He tried clinging onto us by trying to buy us drinks and basically pay his way into our friendship. Which is how he obviously gets all his intimacy. Luckily he stayed away from me for the most part because I made it clear to him the first time he talked to me that I wanted no part of him. We made the most of our night despite all this, finding a pub with more pool tables than hookers and we even ate some fried bugs sold by street vendors. I think given the circumstances we managed to leave with our dignities in tact.

The following day, a few of us decided to check out Khoa San Road, which is backpacker central in Bangkok and close to many of the big sites, such as various temples and the reclining Buddha. Khoa San was like the Silom night market, but during the day, and a lot less sleazy. I needed to find a new pair of sandals, which ended up being a much more difficult task than it would seem. Turns out there aren't a lot of size 13 feet kicking around Thailand, but I managed to find a comfortable pair at a good price (haggling is not only expected, it's an integral part of the experience!) After some more exploring and shopping, we decided to sit at a bar and do some people watching. This was great except for all the touts who would come bug us with whatever trinkets they were selling. If we went 2 minutes without getting bugged by one of them, it was considered a long break. Regardless it was fun watching the world go by. My favourite were the backpackers who had clearly just gotten in from the airport with a bunch of gear on their backs and a dazed look on their face as they tried to find their guesthouses. Still in shock, we kept it a lot quieter that night, opting to stay in the hostel for some pool and a few more towers of beer.

The following day a few of us hit up MBK for some supplies, which is a huge shopping mall that has a lot of the same types of stores as western malls, but also areas with stalls and stalls of goods, much like the outdoor markets. I managed to pick up a power converter and some much-needed shorts. When I got back to the hostel, 4 of us – Eli and Gabby, the Americans, Paul, another Irishman, and I figured out logistics for getting down to Phuket the following day. We booked our hostel and our flight for really good prices. Our flight was pretty early the next morning so we decided to have another quiet night in. What's that road paved with good intentions again? A few other people wanted to go check out the night life on Khoa San road, so we agreed to go see what it was like at night and have a drink or two and leave. This did not go as planned... we did some more people watching, and then it was decided to head to a club (not my decision) for one last drink. One last drink turned into several not-last drinks, and before I knew it, it was 3 am and the club was closing. That's fine, I figured, we could still get home and get 5 hours of sleep. Wrong. Somehow an impromptu dance party started in the street and I knew I was in trouble. Not wanting to be a party pooper, I just went with the flow and had a good time. It was actually a lot of fun and I was having a blast, I just couldn't shake the fact that there was this early morning flight. It was my favourite night out in Bangkok by far because it was just people having a good time... there was no exploitation, no sleaze. We finally made it back to our hostel at 6 and got a couple hours of sleep.

The next day could be described as rough. I managed to wake up, pack up, and be out at the agreed upon time despite my entire body wanting otherwise. It was then that I discovered my bank card was missing. I had the card cancelled, but there wasn't much else I could do since it was night time back home with the time difference (Thailand is 12 hours ahead of Ottawa). We managed to make it to the airport on time and check in. Right after we checked our bags I had my much needed coffee spilled on my shirt. Since my luggage was already on its way to the plane, I had to just grin and bear it...which was fine, because that was the least of my concerns. The flight down to Phuket was about an hour (and kind of rough for the 4 of us but we survived). We bussed into Phuket Town where our hostel was booked and got directions from somebody at the bus station. So we walked in the hot sun for about 20 minutes and finally found the place, except we had been directed to the wrong place. So after sitting down for a few and figuring out where it was we were supposed to actually be, we made our way back to the hostel...which was about 3 minutes away from the bus station. This hostel was actually really nice as well. It's basically a pretty fancy hotel with one floor of dorm rooms. We were actually afraid to go ask at the counter if we had the right place because it was way too nice. Needless to say, we kept it pretty quiet that day and went to bed at a decent hour. The following day we made our way down to Karon beach, which was what we were all waiting for after the craziness of Bangkok. We spent the day relaxing on the white sand, enjoying the view and occasional swim in the turquoise water. This was way better than the smoggy metropolis of Bangkok. This was capped off with an evening on the balcony that included a singalong, some russian win lose or draw, and some asian whiskey. On another note, after several headaches, it looks like my bank card situation is slowly working out, so I will be able to continue on my journey without resorting to begging for Baht to get home. Thanks for all your help back home mom, sorry for the stress!

So that's where we're at now. Tomorrow Gabby and Eli are going to head over to Rawai to stay in a Muay Thai training camp for a few weeks. Paul and I are going to head down to Ko Phi Phi, a small island just south of Phuket. Apparently it's a paradise down there so I'm looking forward to exploring it.

I just re-read this post and it really comes off like I hate Bangkok. I don't really hate it, I just don't really like it either. It's got some beautiful parts to it, but it's got a very ugly underbelly as well. So far I really like Thailand in general. The culture is cool, the climate is amazing, the food is delicious, and everything is a lot cheaper than it was in Europe. I also feel like I'm experiencing more if that makes sense. The many European cultures were cool to learn about, and they're certainly different from Canadian culture, but they still have a very distinctive Western feel to them. This is a completely different kettle of fish though. I know I'm breaking new ground here, saying that Asian culture is different than Western. I guess the best way I can explain the experience is that in Europe I felt more like I was sight-seeing whereas here I'm discovering. So my advice if ever you're out this way is to stay in Bangkok to say you've seen it, but get out to the more peaceful parts of the country as quickly as possible. I can't wait to explore more and report back.

Pictures to come soon