Captivating Cambodia

We apologize for the negativity of our last blog, but we had to tell it like it was! We consider ourselves to be quite laidback travelers and usually let things slide, but we just couldn’t do it considering our misfortunes in Laos. Needless to say, we were VERY happy once the Laos customs officers finally let us out of their country.

It sounds crazy, but my feelings instantly changed when we walked across the border from Laos and into Cambodia. My instinct amazes me sometimes and I knew then, that things would take a turn for the better. We had heard mixed reviews about the country, but we couldn’t have had a better experience. The people, the food, the landscape, the history, it was all amazing. As we entered the country from Laos, we had the opportunity to see a fair bit of northeastern Cambodia. We drove for about twelve hours through small villages and beautiful countryside. The poverty was clearly evident and seeing the many poor people was something very different from our experiences in the other Southeast Asian countries. We drove by large families living in small shacks along the side of the road. By a shack, I mean a small room with three walls and a flimsy roof made out of bamboo. There was no floor and no electricity so when night fell you could see the families eating on the ground by candlelight. Because there are very few developed roads in Cambodia, the drive wasn’t as straightforward as it appeared to be on the map. Also, it is the start of rainy season here, so many of the roads were covered in mud which made for slower travel. After a long travel day which also included many bumps and swerves to avoid hitting the odd cow, chicken, pig, goat, or child we arrived at 1am in Siem Reap. We had been given a brochure of a nice guesthouse to stay in so we got tuk tuks from the bus station (what looked like an open junk yard) to Ancient Angkor Guesthouse and crashed hard! The guesthouse was located just a few minutes walk from the Old Night Market and a busy “strip” of restaurants, bars, and shops.

We were still travelling with Nick and Lizette, our Dutch friends who we have been with since Chiang Mai, Thailand and after a rough few days getting through Laos and into Cambodia we chose to spend our first day relaxing and laying by the pool- yes, our guesthouse had a pool!! It was so, so hot that it felt more like a hot tub but was still very relaxing! So relaxing in fact, that we spent the better part of our second day in Siem Reap doing the same thing. It was an early morning the next day, as we got up at 4:30 am to be picked up by our tuk tuk drivers to take us to Angkor Wat for the sunrise. We had gone the evening before to see the sunset from a temple located on the top of a small mountain (about a 20 minute walk to the top), which was beautiful. We unfortunately, didn’t get to see a sunrise as they were too many clouds but the sight of Angkor Wat alone was breathtaking! The Temples of Angkor are spread out for kilometers and were all built between the 9th and 13th centuries. The sheer size, scale and detail of these ancient temples are enough to stop you in your tracks. We spent the day touring around the most popular temples which included Angkor Wat (the largest religious building in the world), Bayon Temple, and Ta Prohm, where the movie Tomb Raider was filmed. We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the temples and it is something that cannot be missed when in Cambodia.

The most fascinating (and very sad) part of Cambodia is its history. Cambodia is still in the early stages of recovering from The Khmer Rouge regime. The Khmer Rouge, under the leadership of Pol Pot, was a communist political party that took over power only to initiate one of the most horrific revolutions the world has ever seen. Within four year (1975-1979), 2.5 million Cambodians were killed. Cambodians who were even the slightest bit educated (i.e. spoke a foreign language or even just wore glasses) were forced out of the cities and into the countryside to be tortured and executed. We were told that bullets cost too much, so instead of shooting them they would mistreat and neglect them leaving them to die from malnutrition and disease. Many locals that we spoke to were eager to share their stories of this “genocide” as it is now labeled, but there were also many who try to forget it ever happened and will not speak of it. I won’t elaborate on how this all ended in 1979 (involves Vietnam and other countries), but it was only in 1998 that Pol Pot himself died…yes, he lived for another 20 years! Interestingly enough, while we were in our room one evening the local news came on in English and the top story was that the trial for four of Pol Pot’s closest colleagues, who admitted their involvement in the genocide, was beginning the next day in Phnom Penh (capital of Cambodia). This was a clear indication to us of just how recent this “history” is.

We only spent a total of seven days in Cambodia and were only in Phnom Penh for one day while we waited to transfer buses. Had we had more time, we would have stayed in PP for a couple of days to visit the killing fields and S21, a school that was transformed into a prison during the Khmer Rouge regime. This is an experience that from other travelers, we have heard is very distressing.

We had a short but eye-opening experience in Cambodia and I know that I will return in the near future. There is a lot of opportunity to volunteer with the country’s children and elderly (of which there aren’t many) and I would love to put my nursing skills to use in a place with such beautiful people and stories.

Onto the ‘nam!

Let's get the hell out of Laos!!

Well, my guess is that most readers of our blog are likely wondering when I, Clement, would contribute to our stories. As Chief Editor (which has been an easy job as you can imagine), it’s time for me to begin typing. There’s no better time than now after our experiences in Laos. Julia strongly disliked the country…I will do my best to describe our experiences with as much of a positive twist as possible.
We reluctantly left Chiang Mai to head to the Thai border town of Chiang Khong. We truly had an amazing experience in Thailand and we aren’t sure any other country can beat it (although we’ve heard the best is yet to come!). We knew that we had three travel days ahead of us to get to Luang Prabang, our first stop in Laos, but had no idea it would be as painful as it was. After a six hour drive we landed in Chiang Khong where we stayed the night at a sketchy guesthouse. We could see through the wooden planks in the cracking weak floor. The creatures were literally crawling out of the woodwork so our mosquito net was our saving grace. An early morning followed as we hopped on a small boat to take us from Thailand to the Laos border where we picked up our passports with Laos visas and were on our way. You have three options to get from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang; either by bus, speedboat or slow boat. We heard that the bus was brutally long and uncomfortable and people die on a monthly basis on the speedboat so we opted for the third choice, the 2 day slow boat ride down the Mekong River. Floating down the Mekong River for a couple of chilled out days sounds pretty cool right? WRONG!
A slow boat it was. Let me first set the scene. There are no safety regulations on anything in Laos. In fact, Laos Airlines doesn’t even release their safety reports. The boat was way over capacity with at least 80 people crammed into a boat that has a capacity of about 50, and let’s not forget everyone’s luggage. We had to sit on wooden benches that were constructed at less than a 90 degree angle, meaning that we were essentially leaning forward for a total of 17 hours!! These wooden benches made church pews look and feel luxurious! The first day was an 8 hour ride. Thankfully, there was a bit of a breeze which helped to maintain our sanity. On the second day (9 hours) we weren’t so lucky….it was at least 45 degrees and there was no breeze whatsoever. Our bodies cooking under the tin roof of the boat, the little shade we had was not near enough to keep us cool. We have never had our patience and our sanity tested to that extreme before. We are really surprised that nobody went mental and jumped overboard…the stinky dead water buffalo floating down the murky brown river may have deterred them. Having said all this, we met some great people onboard and enjoyed a few warm BeerLao with them to make the time pass.
We were more than happy to have arrived in Luang Prabang and spent a relaxing three days there enjoying some beautiful waterfalls, markets and even the curfew. Lao people are so laidback (some would label them as lazy) that they have a law in LP stating that everything must be closed by 11:30pm. Even before that, the streets empty out and there is no one around except for the odd traveler wondering what the heck is going on. We left LP to head for Vang Vieng, which is famous for tubing down the river. We knew that we couldn’t go to Laos and not make a quick stop here, so we continued on with the group of people from the slow boat (about 10 of us) and spent a couple of nights there. Our group was comprised of 2 Dutchies, 2 Scotts, 3 Germans, 1 Canadian and us. We all became quite close and will continue our travels with some and others we will keep in touch with I’m sure. We all spent one day tubing which was really fun. At the same time it was also sad to see, as many young travelers party hard with no regard or respect for the Laos people, their culture or their land. Although drugs are illegal in Laos, they are available everywhere. You can order a “Happy Pizza” in most restaurants and instead of getting normal mushrooms on it they use magic mushrooms. Needless to say everywhere we went there were numerous travelers tripping out on mushrooms and/or opium. Not really our idea of travelling in SE Asia but we put up with it for a day and managed to have our own fun. Each bar you go to as you make your way down the river has a swing, a waterslide, or a zip-line and in some cases all three. I can’t imagine some of the injuries that occur along this part of the river as people stretch their limits of consumption making them feel invisible.

As we left Vang Vieng headed for Vientiane, we jumped on yet another bus for the 6 hour trip. It was quite uneventful for a change until we arrived in the capital city. We struggled to find accommodation and the heat was getting to us on that scorching afternoon. We finally settled in a hotel that we later found out charged us too much. Yet again, we were looking forward to getting out of there. We didn’t take in many sites in Vientiane as we were getting tired of the bad vibes passed on by the locals. We arranged for our Cambodian Visas and booked our “VIP sleeper bus” tickets to Pakse in Southern Laos…a ten hour trip overnight. We arrived to the bus station to have our tickets switched before we even knew what was happening and ended up on a shitty bus. This bus certainly didn’t look like the pictures we were showed during our booking. We had paid a premium for this “VIP sleeper bus”, another event adding to our frustrations. We woke up at 6 in the morning in Pakse to tuk tuk drivers shaking our feet on the bus to get our attention. At this stop, only the white people were made to get off as the locals watched us with grins on their faces. Our luggage had been put in a separate compartment and was out of the bus before we could wipe the sleep out of our eyes. At this point, we were forced to make a quick decision to go to either Tad Lo or 4000 Islands. We chose 4000 Islands, which proved to be a bad move. I could see how 3-5 years ago this place would have been lovely, but frankly, the locals have let it go to shit!! We were dropped off by the mini bus close to the Mekong River as the Islands are located near the south of Laos. This is where we caught the small boats to take us to the Islands and this little town literally looked like a DUMP…we’ve never seen so much garbage and the foul smells were enough to make your stomach turn. I must mention that by now, Julia had been violently ill for 4 days and her patience was short to say the least. I felt her pain as she struggled to find a toilet as the locals laughed at her. It must have been a nightmare for Jules and I’m so glad that she’s now back to normal.
I hope that I am not sounding too negative throughout this Laos blog. I suppose that we can sum it up to an overall bad experience in a place for which we had very high hopes. It is my belief that if the Laos people do not get their act together soon, they will lose one of their largest industries; tourism. In talking to other travelers, we certainly weren’t the only people who struggled to find the positives within our Laos visit. The Laos people have no concept of the long-term opportunities that tourism presents to its younger generations. Instead, we found the people to be very short sighted and out for personal gain. To top it all off, they almost didn’t let us out of their country because we didn’t have enough kip left to pay off the customs officers (they tried to tell us we owed them more money because it was Saturday and they were working “overtime”). After much arguing and trying to give them whatever we could (we would have given the shirts off our back at this point), they let us through and into Cambodia where we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves! Our blog from Cambodia will follow shortly!

Northern Thailand

We are really pleased with our decision to fly from Phuket to Chiang Mai considering what is currently going on in Bangkok. Chiang Mai is a beautiful city in the north central part of Thailand. We spent six days there, but could have easily spent a couple of weeks. With small alleyways and no tall buildings, it certainly didn’t feel like a big city. We stayed at a beautiful guesthouse (Baan Thai Resort and Spa) that had a pool and really nice gardens. We once again, rented motorbikes for our stay in Chiang Mai. When we arrived in the city I thought to myself that there would be no way we could ever rent motorbikes there, but 24 hours later and we were on the road! It was organized chaos, but it worked! We are always amazed at how it works and how you very rarely hear horns beeping or see accidents. We were able to tour around where and when we wanted, so we spent two days outside of Chiang Mai in the mountains and stumbled across some beautiful hilltribe villages. We also went to an elephant camp that housed 77 elephants who put on a show for us that included them playing soccer, playing the harmonica and painting amazing paintings. We went to the “Night Bazaar” each night for dinner and sampled some great northern Thai food. Speaking of food, Clement took a one-day Thai cooking course where he learned how to make six Thai dishes that we are excited to share with everyone at home. He even got to make my favorite dish, Chicken with cashew nuts, so I can’t wait for him to cook me up this delicious dish. While Clem was at the cooking school for the day, I chose to go for a massage and went to a great spa that was opened in 2001 for female inmates from the women’s prison. Knowing that it is often difficult for criminals to get back into the workforce, one lady opened this spa to help them out and to prevent them from re-entering the circle of crime. This place had a really cool atmosphere and knowing the history of some of the girls made it that much better. I had a one hour foot massage, which was amazing! During my massage it started to rain and when it rains here, it rains! I had the scooter with me, so I knew I would have to wait around for the rain to stop. After I paid for my massage ($5 to be exact!), the ladies whisked me into this café that they ran that was attached to the spa. They sat me down and gave me a handful of English magazines and served me an ice tea. After about 40 minutes the rain stopped and before I could even stand up, they had pulled my scooter out front for me and wiped off the seat! This is just one more example of how lovely the Thai people are. I enjoyed it so much that Clement and I both went back the next day for Thai massages. Short of screaming at the lady for being so strong, it was my best massage yet. I was in the air on top of this little (but mighty) Thai girl, bent in positions that I didn’t know existed and rubbed down with Tiger Balm. After experiencing these Thai massages, it’s going to be hard to go back to the $80 massages that you get at home!

Seeing as everyone seems to get such a kick out of my fear for creatures, I will explain how it’s been going for the last little while. When we first got to Asia, I told Clem that I was no longer going to be afraid of creepy crawly things….I was going to “become one with them” (haha). So, I went on a mission to not worry about what could be crawling under my feet or stuck in my hair or running across the street in front of us. It worked for about 48 hours, but since then I have been attacked (yes, attacked) by more creatures than before I made this statement! Clement thinks that they can sense that I’m deathly afraid of them and that’s why they are attracted to me because nothing, and I mean NOTHING has happened to him. He hasn’t even seen so much as an ant crawling on him. To give you some details, we were in the water at the beach in Karon Beach (Phuket) and out of nowhere this fish (looked like a marlin with a long snout but about ten inches long) flew in my face and got caught in my hair elastic that was around my wrist. It flopped around frantically trying to untangle itself as I panicked and screamed like a little kid while trying to get out of the water as fast as I could. Finally, we both got free…he was safe in the ocean and I was safe on land. I was so embarrassed because everyone was looking at me, and Clement just laid in the water laughing at me. I still am trying to figure out how of all the ocean water that little bugger had why he would choose to jump OUT of the water and into MY face?! Then, when we were at the elephant camp in Chiang Mai, we were feeding them and got to sit on their leg while they wrapped their trunk around you. Clement did it first and the elephants were so cute. I then fed them and sat down only to be sneezed on!! This massive mammal blew snots all over my chest….just imagine how much snot that is! I was not a happy camper. Then, later that night we were walking up to our room at our guesthouse and had taken off our shoes (it’s customary here to do so). All of a sudden, I screamed in pain because something was burning the bottom of my foot…there was a bee stuck in my foot that had stung me. Who steps on a bee? Me, I guess. So then I really started to panic knowing that the only thing I DON’T have in my first aid kit is an Epi-Pen. I had never been stung by a bee before (that I knew of) so me being the worry wart I am, started to think that I was going to go into anaphylactic shock. Thankfully that didn’t happen and I have once again, lived to tell the story. So, those are just a few examples of my encounters with creatures. (I’ve kindly left out the many monstrous rats that have run across the street in front of me, the dead snake that I stepped on, the cockroach infested rooms that we call home, and who could forget the bed bugs that we are BOTH covered in….the only thing that has come close to Clem).

Thai Culture

This is the part that is most frustrating…trying to describe the Thai people and their culture. The locals are so friendly and humble that we are just shocked each time we have an encounter with them. They are such happy people that are always willing to help and make your visit to Thailand as great as it can possibly be. They don’t call it the “Land of Smiles” for nothing. From the village children roaming in the streets making their own fun for hours on end, to the young ladyboys who REALLY like Clem (ha ha), the Thai people are one of a kind. They bow to you with such sincerity that it makes you feel as if you are the only person on the planet. We were at a beach bar in Koh Phi Phi and the young guys that worked at the bar put on a fire show each night (an amazing one at that). One of the staff was a ladyboy…and not a good one. She/he was clearly in transition wearing a pink satin strapless dress, glittery eye makeup, and high heels, but still had a moustache! The other staff (who were athletic men) worked alongside this ladyboy as if it was nothing. We remarked about how this would not be the case at home, as we all know what that poor person would be subjected to. It is fascinating how they all take care of each other and you by catering to you as if you were the king. We also met some amazing girls at a bar in Phuket. They work in the sex trade (i.e. they can be “bought” for a night or two) and were the nicest, most genuine women one could ever meet. Matt got really sick with food poisoning while we were sitting at the bar and we had to leave to go back to our hotel. The girls were so sincerely concerned. They packed a bag full of water bottles and cold towels for us to take on the ride home and then proceeded to tell us that they would go to the pharmacy for us and to drink lots of hot tea. In my opinion, you would be hard pressed to find this kind of treatment back home. These are just a couple of our many positive encounters with the Thai people. As I mentioned, is it impossible to capture all of these moments in writing. In a couple of days, we will head up to northern Thailand (Chiang Mai) which is deemed to be the cultural capital of Thailand. We cannot wait to experience more of their culture and to spend more time with the locals.

The introduction to Thailand in “The Lonely Planet” puts it nicely so I will share it with all of you:

“Thailand. Close your eyes, let the world roll over your tongue, and almost instantly the pictures begin to form in your mind. Maybe you’re seeing a stark white beach, with piles of softly pillowing sand stretching on forever. There isn’t another person in sight, and a mammoth coconut tree with a curved trunk stretches out over the startlingly blue ocean. Or maybe Thailand to you is the chaos and confusion of big-city Bangkok, with bodies moving in every direction at once, and stinging neon lights beckoning you to drink liquor with bikini-clad bargirls.
Perhaps your Thailand is an open field and an ancient stone Buddha so large its feet are longer than your body. Tourists have captured his image on film thousands of times, but he continues to sit still, eyes closed and peaceful, seemingly keeping a secret.
And that’s the thing about Thailand: it is fast and stressful and frightening, and it’s quiet and meditative and kind. And yes, it holds secrets, but very few of them will come to you easily.
There’s a perfectly good reason why this country is one of the most popular destinations in all of Asia. When you see something here you’ve never seen before- the wrinkled face of a hill tribe villager, or the come-hither glance of a ladyboy- you start to think hard about what else you don’t know, and where else you’ve not been. Thailand is like that. If you’re lucky, it will seep into your pores and settle heavily on your soul…surrender yourself deeply enough to this Land of Smiles, and to its people, and you may find that the person you once were has changed forever. Is that a good thing? The decision, of course, is all yours. Why not just close your eyes and let the pictures begin to form in your mind?”

For me, Thailand quickly sunk into my pores and I wake up every day not believing where I am and the people I am surrounded by. It’s amazing (and corny), but it is clear now that the person I once was has changed forever….I just keep pinching myself and looking forward to our remaining time in this beautiful country.

The Wild Adventures in Thailand Continue…

After spending three nights in Koh Lanta, we took a three and half hour ferry ride to Phuket. We were told when we booked our boat tickets that we would be changing ferries in the water….we didn’t think we understood correctly because of the language barrier, but we did hear right! Half way through our ferry ride, another ferry pulled up beside us and we had to jump over in the middle of the ocean! We had a good laugh about that and arrived in Phuket shortly after. Ryan and Ashley were flying out of Phuket to head back to Canada so we spent our last two days with them in Patong Beach and went out with a bang. We went out to Soi Bang La, which is a busy strip of bars, clubs, pubs and little holes in the wall where you can take in a local “Ping Pong and Resbian Show”. As soon as we stepped onto this street we were bombarded by people trying to sell us “tickets” to these shows. We ignored the first twenty of them and then actually began talking to one guy who told Ashley and I it was free, but 500 baht per beer (about $15) for the guys. We ended up talking him down to 200 baht ($6) each and he took us to his bar. We were a little bit weirded out as we weren’t sure what we had gotten ourselves into and followed him down this alley and into this curtained door which opened up into a small room (the bar) the size of a regular bedroom! He sat us in these stools that lined the bar (also known to some as “perv row”)…little did we know what would happen next. The things we saw, we will never see again in our lives. There were naked girls, ping pong balls, bananas, little birds, and darts involved….you can use your imagination for the rest because it is not bloggable material! Needless to say, we sat there for a short time in amazement before heading back through the curtain only to be bombarded again. Oh, did I mention that Phuket is one of the sex trade capitals of Thailand?

We spent the next day cruising the markets where Clem and Ryan ordered their custom made suits. Clement paid $300 Canadian for two cashmere suits (gray and light brown) and four shirts, which also included the shipping back to Canada. They turned out amazingly!

We said a sad good bye to Ashley and Ryan and sent them on their way to the airport, only to meet up with Matt and Camelia (from KL)!! They had emailed us a week ago telling us that they would meet us in Phuket for the weekend. We were so excited to see them again and spent an amazing weekend with them in Karon Beach (just down the road from Patong Beach). Matt has been to Phuket on numerous occasions and knew the ins and outs of the city. We partied pretty darn hard the first night we met them and took in some even crazier stuff than what we had seen a few nights earlier. This time it involved yet again, ping pong balls and rubber whips! We started the night off at a small beachside bar called “Ocean View Bar”. Matt led the way to this bar and when we approached it, we realized that we had stopped at that exact bar the night before with Ryan and Ashley. The girls remembered Clem and I and ran up giving us hugs and welcoming us again! We spent a few hours there hanging out with Jaja, Mina, Moi, and Roong, who quickly became our good friends. We played many games with them and had a great time laughing at them as they became more and more drunk. Jaja tried to tell me that she never gets a hangover, but when we returned to see her two nights later, she explained that she couldn’t open her eyes and was only able to drink water and “one tequila”. Haha. We have some great videos of our time spent with the Ocean View Bar girls and will upload them when we have a better internet connection. You will all get a great laugh out of them!

We had rented motorbikes for our time spent in Karon Beach for 200 baht per day ($6!). It was great, as we could go wherever we wanted without having to take a taxi or tuk tuk. I have to admit that I was a little scared because motorbiking around Phuket was way crazier than our previous day trip on Koh Lanta where we had the roads to ourselves. We quickly got used to it and had a great time taking in the sights around Phuket. We did hire a taxi for one afternoon to take us to some of the local attractions. Matt and Camelia had planned on bungy jumping in Phuket and while Clem had had his fill of adrenalin in NZ, he decided to join in. Matt, Clem and Camelia all took the plunge and had a great time! We have great videos and their certificates to prove it! We also went to a shooting range where Matt got to shoot a machine gun and a shotgun. We had a great afternoon cruising around on what has been dubbed “Adventure Day”.

We spent a great four days with Matt and Camelia in Phuket before they returned to Kuala Lumpur and we made some plans as to where we were heading next. We had originally planned for between 3-4 weeks in Thailand and were intending to head over to the east coast to spend some time on the islands there (Koh Tao and Koh Phanang). Unfortunately, the violence has been escalating in Bangkok and our only way to travel after those islands would be through Bangkok. We could have come back to Phuket, but it seemed to be an unnecessary cost and at least a couple of days of wasted travel, so we have just booked flights from Phuket to fly up to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. We have a couple of more days in Phuket and will spend them on the beach before heading up to the cultural capital of Thailand. We plan to spend 3-4days in Chiang Mai where we may take in some elephant trekking and a Thai cooking course.