06/07/13

It's 8:51, I've been in Siem Reap for about 3 hours. If I have 1 piece of advice to give to anyone, especially anyone with feet the size that I do, it is this; Do not lose or break your flip flops in Cambodia. It's a well known stereotype that Asian people are shorter, and the foot size would go hand in hand, but I thought they might accommodate for western people buying shoes, they're pretty good and accommodating everything else that takes money from tourists! I eventually found some half decent, durable sandals which aren't really to my liking, but hell, after a 10 hour bus and little sleep, I was willing to settle for anything. I am sat on the river, writing this blog, and in a country as poor as Cambodia, it's very unnerving to have people come up behind me every 10 seconds and either stare or ask me for money. I miss Brisbane. But let's lighten the tone! The bus is a night bus, so the seats are very reclined, practically lying down. You board a sleeper bus, 2 up, 2 down, 2 rows. You gamble, this bus will be full and you will have to sleep next to somebody. I'll tell you the ideal situation. You get on the bus, the bus driver/porter takes you to your seat. It's taken. The bus man then moves back a couple of seats and points to a spare seat, a spare seat next to an attractive Italian girl in her early 20s. You talk to her, hit it off and exchange details and plan to meet up in Vietnam. Oh, and that's what happened. Our Vietnam travel dates are offset by a week, I get there a week before her and she leaves a week after me, so if we are to travel together, it might only be partial and take a bit of thinking through because of the normal travel route through Vietnam. My plan for today is simple; make some friends so I'm not alone to do Angkor Wat tomorrow.

07/05/13

Weirdest thing happened. I wasn't really up for the risk of making friends in a day to see the temples tomorrow, so I cheated. Kinda... I went on couch surfing and posted an ad for seeing the temples tomorrow morning, this was responded by a guy called Aldrich. He's an American born Filipino. A little to and fro with emails and it ended on me asking for a time and place to meet to discuss tuk tuks, times and temples later this evening. I went on a search for food and ended up at this depressing café on the edge of the old market. "$2.50 for a beef curry? Not bad" I thought. I was wrong. It had Durian in it, that stuff stinks and the Asians love it. In a market, if they're cutting it up, it's going to reek the place out, and I can't last a minute there. I was sat there, struggling through the rancid curry, yet somewhat aided by the 50c beer and I noticed a girl, late 20s, sit next to me. After a year of travelling, I still find it a bit difficult to start a conversation with a seemingly lonesome traveller. But it paid off! I asked if she was travelling alone and if she'd like to join me for company. We ate dinner and got talking about the usual stuff, how long we've been away, where we've been, etc etc. Then, when I checked my email, and the time, I realised Aldrich hadn't contacted me back. What the hell, there was no obligation, I don't know this guy, I'll ask this girl if she'd like to share a tuk tuk tomorrow. Well. She had met a guy on the bus last night and was planning to go with him. An 'American born Filipino. You're kidding. Is the world really THAT small? It turns out; yes. Yes it is. We figured we'd stick together until he contacted one of us. We headed to a bar, caught the end of the Lions celebrations (f***, should have watched that game!) and had a few more 50c beers. She received an email off him and we went to meet him. He was at a bar with 2 Dutch girls he had met and after some more food and chatting. We arranged the plans for tomorrow morning. It's 23:08 and I'm being picked up at 4:15. I should get some sleep.

One last thing though, the two Dutch girls; Sanne and Sophie are going to Phnom Penh a day before me. They also want to see the killing fields, so we're going together.

This is something I love; One act of humanity on my part, rewarded with companionship for two trips I didn't want to do myself. If I hadn't of offered to share a table to offer a bit of company, who knows how the rest of Cambodia would have panned out?

07/07/13

I have just got back from the 'temple run' as people like to call it. I got up at 3:45 to be outside for a 4:20 pickup by Aldrich and the others. But by 4:50 when he hadn't shown yet, me and Deirdre made the call to get our own tuk tuk and go it alone in order to make it for sunset. We saw Angkor Wat when it started to get light but unfortunately, it had been raining all night and the clouds hadn't cleared by the time the sun came up. Due to the mass amount of people at Angkor Wat, we left as soon as we realised the sunrise was s***, only to meet Aldrich and his 2 friends; Tasha and Daniel on their way in. They had a guide, so we joined forces and carried on with our plan. The temples were pretty amazing, despite being in a weary state of tiredness. The first temple we visited (after Angkor Wat) was pretty small, but possibly my favourite. There was no scaffolding, it was still mainly intact, there were a few monkeys running around and there were next to no other people there! This changed dramatically at the next temple, the temple that Lara Croft was filmed at. I'm unsure if this was because we clashed with the crowd or because it was where Lara Croft was filmed there. Either way, it was busy and pretty s*** because of that. But it was there that we discovered the drumming room, a room which doesn't echo voice, clapping or clicking, only when you beat your chest. I had a bit too much fun doing it and ended up hurting myself a bit, but it was worth it. We carried on around the temple, guided by Khing, who's name did not live up to his tour guide skills. He talked a lot, which I wouldn't have minded if it was all facts and figures, but he was very set on telling us his own opinions about a lot of things and he just didn't know how to round a story up, meaning each opinionated story went on and on. This aside, he did give us some good facts and took us places which might have otherwise been missed. We then went to Angkor Wat, which despite the size of the place, wasn't overly fascinating. I preferred the over grown, ruined temples more than this well kept, idolised one. ... Wow, I've suddenly turned moody. ... Anyway, we got back about 2pm and after a well needed shower, I met back up with Deirdre and ran into Sanne and Sophie again, we all grabbed lunch and arranged to meet up in Phnom Penh for the killing fields.

08/07/13

I spent the day sewing on patches onto my bag, I found a Cambodian flag, a backlogged Thai flag and a very backlogged UK flag for the top of my bag. This was completed at about 2pm and by 3pm I had made some drastic improvements to my onward journey. I was speaking to Nhung about my visit to Hanoi and to meet her there and go to tick something off my list (you'll find out in the Hanoi blog). She asked me if I would like to stay at hers at the weekend! I'm couchsurfing the first couple of nights which takes me up until the weekend, which fits in perfectly with Nhung's offer!

Aaaaand something funny just happened, a pair of German guys were talking (in German) opposite me. I, maybe slightly rudely, interrupted their conversation which I was understanding a little. Something about Hanoi airport and walking an going up. I don't know, so I asked if they were going to Hanoi. He replied in German saying that they're going to Phnom Penh tonight and will stay there for 4-5 days, then to Saigon and travel up to Hanoi. Very simple stuff, but I'm pretty happy with that. The funny thing is that they left straight away. I don't know if it's because they knew I could understand or because they had to go somewhere.

09/07/13

Sorry to back track here, but before that happened, I met up with Carolyn. The girl who I met on my first night at Everythang. We went for food, then ice cream and finally more food (that spanned over 6 hours). She is studying human rights and obviously human rights in Cambodia is a massive issue. We (she) talked a lot about the Khmer Rouge and the influence the American's had in Cambodia just before the rouge hit. Things that aren't made clear in the history lessons around Cambodia. We hung out from about 15:30 until 21:30, I had a bailey's ice cream which I didn't want to end and I got a sandwich to take for the evening. That was a nice way to spend a day and find out a lot of things that I didn't know already.

Today though, well, last night, I got the night bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, I have 2 days before my flight. So today we went to see the killing fields, it was just me, Sophie and Sanne, the two Dutch girls I met in Siem Reap. It wasn't AS moving as I thought it would be, but this isn't to say that I was numb to the whole experience. The audio guide did a good job of describing the events, how it was all done at the camp and first hand witnesses' accounts of the situations. That said, I feel that it lacked the history or the motives behind the mass genocide, which for me is very important to understand. Luckily, as I said, Carolyn touched on that when we were hanging out last night. It was horrific though, hearing about how it was done and the mass graves that were found. 160 headless bodies found in one. Over 450 bodies in another. A grave of naked women and children found next to a tree. The tree, dubbed 'The killing tree' was used to bash skulls against before throwing the body in. Sometimes, still alive. The open graves, cordoned off with rope were done so because bones still surface after rainfall, a chilling reminder that it wasn't too long ago. In the centre of the area, a monument has been constructed, housing 17 floors, the first 9 populated by 900 skulls categorised into gender and age. Looking at the skulls and seeing an axe wound in the side or a complete crack on the top made it very real. The experience was pretty horrible, but has to be done if you're backpacking in Cambodia.

In the evening we went to dinner at a restaurant called 'Friends', which helps Cambodian street children and teach them English, and skills. Those that want to learn restaurant skills are trained in this restaurant. For a good cause, and the food was amazing. Win, win.

10/07/13

I spent the whole day with Cassy, an English girl I met in the dorm yesterday. We walked around a lot, just chatting and walking. I grabbed some food at a café which turned out to be like a school canteen. It was cheap and I got a baguette for 3000R (75c), it was a bargain, trust. We went to another café so Cassy could use the wifi and I ended up having my first been in 2 days! There we met a Hungarian guy. He was pretty crazy and I accidently invited him onto our table because he kept inviting himself into our conversation anyway. One of his tattoos in Khmer was meant to say 'Live long and prosper' but it didn't translate that way. When he told us, Cassy asked if it was a quote from the Bible, even though I'm not a trekky, or actually ever seen an episode of star trek, I still know where it's from. He was very eager to tell us his life and how he was in the army/red cross/is a helicopter pilot. Potentially an interesting man, but he didn't execute it well. We left feeling quite uneasy. I printed off my Vietnam visa approval letter; we grabbed a couple of cans from the local shop and sat in a shade in the park. The whole day we were chatting, drinking, chilling and listening to music, it was an awesomely chilled out day. We were quite similar people, and it was good to have that person to hang out with again. But there were still views we didn't see eye to eye on. This went on into the evening and we went for a pizza which, considering I haven't had it for probably around 4 months, it did nothing for me. There was a pole with 2 concrete weights on either side. I obviously decided it lift it, to which a group of Khmei men were encouraging me to lift it above my head. I did so, 8 reps. Put it down, walked away and as we walked past them, they gave us some whisky and coke. Free drink for lifting a weight, I obviously impressed them! We went back to the park and chilled some more. Came back to the hostel, watched some Archer, and BAM, here I am.

11/07/13

Today I leave Cambodia, it's 10:30am and I'm sat in a restaurant having just had some 6000R ($1.50) noodles for breakfast with free iced tea, something I haven't liked until now! This is a very simple example, but it proves the saying "If you always do what you've always done, you'll only have what you've ever had". Now I have iced tea in my life! The tv is on Cartoon Network and I'm currently witnessing 4 grown men thoroughly enjoying Tom & Jerry. In all fairness, there's 3 of them, and I'm enjoying it too. It's a classic, alright?! My flight is at 16:55, so I'm going to the airport at about 14:30. I was speaking to Nhung earlier, my Vietnamese friend and she said that I'll be staying at her friend's house because he lives alone and she lives with her parents. I'm cool with that, but she's invited me over for dinner on Sunday with her parents, a real Vietnamese family with proper Vietnamese home cooking! I'm not saying I've done the rest of Asia 'wrong', but I wish I had organised something like that for the other countries too! I've also had another couchsurfing invite for Saigon, living with students and sitting in a café talking to Vietnamese people in the evening to help improve their English. This is perfect! I hate the saying "When one door closes, another one opens", but this is very fitting. I now have very limited money for my 3 weeks in Vietnam, so I searched couchsurfing for things to do and places to stay. In return, I'm going to experience real Vietnamese culture fist hand!