The travels of Justin

We’re back in Bangkok after another bus ride across the “dancing road” from Cambodia. Tina and I just had a wonderful Shrimp Wun Ton soup and some drinks and headed to a web cafe. We’ve got to figure out where we want to stay tomorrow when we get to the island of Koh Samet, which is supposed to have some pretty awesome beaches. It’s looking as though we’ll just have to see what’s available when we arrive; it’s the fun of travelling. We’re also taking the chance to empty the memory of our digital camera to CD. We have around 350 photos already, mostly of Angkor Wat ruins. Don’t worry though, we won’t force them all on you when we get back, and we will be much less trigger happy now that we’re headed for the white sands of a beautiful beach. I still can’t wait for our last day or two in Bangkok where we will visit the Grand Palace, and some other sights.

It’s 11:15 pm right now, and we were up at 6 to catch our morning bus - it’s not all relaxing. Our bus forgot to pick us up in Cambodia, and I was able to arrange something with minutes to spare. They got us to the bus we needed, but it was packed with people. Out come these mini seats, proped up on bricks, that Tina and I endured for 5 hours. Painful! We survived, and thankfully the Thai border crossing is much more simple than the Cambodia one, and we were through in a jiffy.

I think our bus tomorrow is a public one, not the chartered busses that we took to Cambodia, so it might be interesting. We’ve heard from other travellers, that it’s more fun and takes longer, but can be difficult since not everyone speaks English. That’s okay though. Despite our language skills being limited to “hello” and “thank you”, I managed to get some Dim Sum steamed buns and a hot dog for lunch at a 7-11 (they are everywhere here), which felt like an accomplishment.

Anyway, it’s time for some sleep, and we’ll have a big day ahead of us. Goodnight for me, and good morning to you!

Well we went for the sunset, but just after we climbed a steep path, and then almost-vertical-temple-stairs to get a beautiful view….. the rain came pouring down. It’s not just lots of rain, it’s big fat rain. At least it’s warm.

Within minutes we were soaked to the bone, and most tourists were heading for their busses.

Tonight will be our last night in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It’s been fun, to say the least. Speaking of the temperature, yesterday was the hottest day — 38°C and very little wind. I bought a 2 t-shirts at Angkor Wat and although I couldn’t seem to get much better than 2 for $5 USD, I got the lady to throw in a small hand towel for wiping the sweat from our faces. She wasn’t too happy to cave in, but it was still a good deal.

We still can’t get over how expensive it is here. For us, travelling on a tight budget, everything is so inflated for the American, French, and Korean tourists. There are several 5-star hotels, and more being built. We splurged and have been paying $40 USD/day for a personal guide, and they said that the Korean tour companies often charge $80 USD per person and more! Sometimes for dinner we end up spending close to the same as we would to eat out at home. Cans of Coke cost us $1 USD, where we can get them for $0.50-$0.75 CAD at home. Of course, why drink Coke when you can have fresh Watermelon/Coconut juice for the same price–YUM!

Yesterday we spent our second day at the temples. The Bayon temples are surrounded by carvings that tell stories about the history of local wars, and religious events; it was a real highlight for me. On the way home we stopped near a massive moat to feed some bannanas to some wild monkeys that were sitting beside the road.

Two days of temple exploring in this heat are really draining, but instead of heading in for bed, we met up with an Israeli woman whom we first met on the bus into Cambodia. She’s spent the last 2 years living in India, and has obviously fallen in love with the country. From her stories, it would be hard not to.

For today, our last day here, we avoided the temples and had our guides show us around the city. The day began with a visit to the floating village. (Josh: you’d love this) During the raining season (lasts until November) the giant lake in the centre of Cambodia floods much of the landscape. This village is all floating homes–some built on bamboo rafts, and others on stilts. For $10 USD/each we took a boat along the corridor of homes, businesses (including electronics, fish farms and restaurants), and swimming children. The corridor, which is lined with the folliage of trees hiding under the water, leads directly to the lake which is a site that is incredible. The lake looks like the ocean because of it’s size. The shores stretch to your left and right and you cannot see any side of the lake. On the way back to the dock, we stopped at a restaurant with a fish farm of catfish. Our guide scooped some shrimp pieces into the calm water and we were suddenly being splashed by so many of them. In another tank they had at least 15 small crocodiles, and other cages with animals.

We visited a small Killing Field monument, which was a small building (~4 sq. ft.) with glass panels in the sides so one can see it filled with human bones and skulls. The big monument to the destruction from the Khmer Rouge is at the capitol city of Phenom Penn, but killing fields are all over the country. Nearby, we visited a landmine museum, where a local has made it his passion to educate tourists and locals about landmines, and also help clear them. He has amasssed thousands of mines, grenades, and other inactive ordanance and displays them. The museum seems to be run mostly by volunteers and amputees. The most moving aspect of the museum is seeing paintings that depict life stories of the people at the museum. The founder was himself recruited to the Khmer Rouge when he was very young and spend many years planting mines. Later he began working with the United Nations to remove mines (nearly 20,000 just from the local area). There were other stories from locals of how they avoided death, or successfully killed groups of enemy soldiers. I will never understand what effect this has left on the people, but the most visible reminder is the absence of older people. There simply are few middle aged, and almost no old people here.

Anyway, I’m going back to my room to be refreshed by our air conditioning. In 20 minutes it will be 5 pm and we’ll head to one of the temples to watch the sunset at 6 pm. Tomorrow morning, we will catch our bus and head back across the “dancing” road eventually arrive in Bangkok. We’ll only spend the night in Bangkok, and in the morning we’ll catch another bus (details unknown) southeast and then a boat to the island of Ko Somet. Take care!

After a grueling 29 hours in transit (including layovers) we made it into Bangkok. We were very jet lagged and almost didn’t go out the next morning (yesterday). On our way to an ATM, we met a young Thai woman who started chatting us up. She wrote down a list of temples for us to see and negotiated a tuk-tuk (motorized rickshaw) for us. Three hours of touring around Bangkok for about 40 Bhat (about $1 CAD).

Just wait until I bring home photos of the giant, 45 meter tall, Standing Buddah. The whole statue is covered in gold leaf - amazing (yes, I’ll be saying amazing a lot). We were also toured around a temple under renovation with a nice man who told us a lot of the history. The trip capped off with a beautiful sunset from the top of The Golden Mountain temple.

All this for a buck, you ask? Yes there was a catch. There is always a catch.

We had to make a couple of stops to what they called a “Thai Factory”; it’s an overpriced custom tailor that wants to make you a custom suit. The tuk-tuk drivers get gas rebates and commissions when you purchase - go fig! We’ve also since realized that the nice woman who started this journey was planted by a company. So was the guy who toured us around the temple and happened to mention a certain “Thai Factory”. Long story short - we toured around for $1 and never bought a thing. Our tuk-tuk driver was mad at the end, but it was a great deal for us. (can you say karma?)

Our hotel/guesthouse in Bangkok was just off of the Khao San Road - the centre for backpackers and tourists. All the roads are crazy - filled with vendors selling anything and everything - and tons of people. Traffic in Bangkok would make even the craziest driver seem cool, calm and collected. The city is incredibly dirty. Really dirty, but still a lot of fun.

So that was yesterday (our 1st full day in town). This morning, at 7:30 am, we boarded a crazy light-duty pickup, picked up another 8 people (little overloaded, but standard fare for the city), and were connected with our “VIP Bus” to set us en route to Cambodia.

More crazy driving through small towns and the Thai countryside. Just think: street lines are only for reference and not really used. It’s beautiful country though with palm trees, and lush green rice fields. It seemed like a very fast 5 hours to the border. So then the drivers drop us off in the middle of a crazy border marketplace, with a giant “Welcome to Cambodia” arch marking the border crossing. We stood in line for an hour in the very hot and humid sun before we saw the officials. We were processed very quickly, much to our pleasure, and were shuffled between a couple busses. It was a bit of a freightening experience, and we were concerned that they might want a bribe to give us our Visa’s, but all went well. It was sad to see, just on the other side, how impoverished everyone was: buildings half crumbled, garbage everywhere, and endless children beggars (watch those pockets). There is an unbelievable contrast between these two countries in the amount of poverty - Cambodia doesn’t even have paved roads, except for downtown in the “big city” where the tourist dollars are.

Our “Air Conditioned” bus (I use the term loosely), boldly navigated the dirtiest, pothole-ridden, busy, insane… road you can’t even begin to imagine. The countryside was filled with houses that were barely houses; roads that were barely roads. Water everywhere in endless flooded rice fields. The land is so flat that it reminded us of seeing Prairie wheatfields.

The bridges along the road look like they could be reminants of the US Army’s temporary bridges, used during war time. Covered in planks, metal, you name it, they were a thrill unto their own.

The whole bus ride took 12 hours, and as you’ve guessed, we survived just fine. We might change our plans and fly back though - the expense is worth it!!!!!

We just checked into our over priced hotel room ($20 USD/night compared with $4 and up elsewhere) and will try to arrange tours of Angkor Wat for tomorrow.

Check back again for more adventures of Tina and Justin…

Our plans have changed and we could really use a ride from the Airport when we come home.

Would someone be willing to pick us up at the airport on September 4th @ about 3 pm?

We can afford a taxi, but it would much more fun to meet friends and hang out. Please email me if you can — we’d sure appreciate it

The bags are packed and we’re about as ready as we can be. Tina did a great job of rolling our clothes so small that everything fits really well. I convinced her that she probably didn’t need two baseball caps, and all in all I think we’ve packed very reasonably.

Tonight we’ll stay with Tina’s dad in Burnaby, and he has been kind enough to drive us to the airport for our 7 am flight. We should arive in Bangkok at 11 pm on August 19th.

Have fun everyone!

We’ve heard that traffic in Bangkok can be really terrible. I just booked our hotel, the Thai Cozy House, for the first two nights. The clerk guessed that at around midnight, the trip from the airport to downtown Bangkok would take one-and-a-half to two hours. By my estimate that is a ~20 km journey. She actually used the words “traffic jam.” I can’t imagine a traffic jam of any kind at midnight.

These photos of Angkor Wat are amazing. I’m so excited!!!

At 10:30 am, Bangkok time, the weather report was 40°C and 89% humidity. It’s now 3:30pm, and it looks like 46°C 71%.

Although we’ve unpacked and settled into our new home rather quickly, our tickets are booked and we’re set to head to Thailand and Cambodia for the rest of August. It’s still surprises me that Tina suggested Cambodia as our destination, but I’m far from disapointed. Holy cow, there’s no going back now. With threats of danger and intriegue that we still can’t imagine–actually, it’s not really important to imagine any danger, since Cambodia is in the bottom 25% of poorest countries and boasts itself as the most heavily mined country in the world. In fact, Cambodia has only re-opened for tourism since 1996. The UN, which began removing mines in 1991, estimates it would take 50-60 years to find and detonate them all. It seems crazy just to consider living under those conditions.

The real jewel of this trip is to visit the lost temples of Angkor Wat: the largest religious monument in the world. In my limited understanding, what Mecca is for Islam, Angkor Wat is for Buhddists. It is believed to have been built during the same period as the Egyptian pyramids. We’ll probably spend several days there to explore the temples. I must admit that I’ve spent so much time thinking about Angkor Wat and Cambodia, that I don’t know much about Thailand.

We had hoped to pay hommage to the Killing Fields (obligatory reference to the movie ), but time (among other reasons) will not permit us to travel to the capitol, Phenom Penn, where it all happened.

So our plan starts with us landing in Bangkok, Thailand as we (hopefully) pickup our luggage and wave our hands around trying to find someone to help some ignorant westerners get a bus to our hotel at midnight. In 32°C (88°F) with 89% humitity weather–yes, it is the rainy season–we’ll spend our first day in Bangkok trying to shake off the jet lag and get our bearings for whatever lays ahead.

I’ll give updates when I can.