12/03/2005 This was what we awoke to after 2 hours asleep in the car, looks like something from Narnia.
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Wat! Buses, Snakes and Elephants (Sian)
Just thought I would add a blog to let eveyone know what we have been up to. Steve wrote a blog minute ago but it magically disapeared in to the computer system!
Bangkok was fun and uneventful, although we managed to replace Steve's lost phone and buy a couple of Tshirts and the general stuff you do in a city we have already visited twice! Still there must be something good about the place as we ended up staying for another 2 nights!
Anyhow, the 12 hour bus journey to Chang Mai went suprisingly fast, I wore the fetching eye mask Jess gave me from her flight in to Thailand which meant that I slept better than Steve and awoke feeling rather chirpy.
We were met at the bus stop by some friendly taxi drivers who took us to their friends guest house, thought it was a bit of a scam but hey the rooms only 2.85 a night and includes hot water.
Whilst out exploring the city we came across a friendly tuk tuk driver who offers us a tour of the city, saying no at first then realising we have nothing better to do we agree to go along with him for 2 quid. The tour takes us around a load of temples with Buddah in and we make the most of getting some good pictures. Steve also gets to set some birds free from a cage, an ancient Buddist thing. I do wonder who captures the birds in the first place though? The tuk tuk driver magically changed his vehicle and we ended up touring Chang Mai in a lovely air conditioned Mitshubishi car! Feeling templed out after an hour we head to a snake farm, just in time for a stupid show of a silly man playing with Cobra's and such like. The snake farm was rather pointless but did house some really scary snakes. Strange that most of the cages were unlocked though. Even stranger that some of the unlocked cages held some deadly snakes which were missing! After the snake farm our driver took us to a Monkey training school, which was rather a sick thing to see. Most of the monkeys had chains around their necks and during the 'show' they were coaxing them to walk on two feet instead of four, most bizare. I also managed to fall out with a couple of monkeys who I think must've taken a dislike to my t shirt, they kept on leaping at me, luckily they were behind bars. (kind of)
The highlight of our day was by far the elephant training camp. It was brilliant. We saw Elephants of all sizes and ages having a bath in the river, they were so cute! We also got to see the show, wich was much better than the other two we'd seen. The elephants came on in a parade, linking trunks and tails together. I thought I was watching a live version of Jungle Book or Dumbo. The Elephants also painted pictures, played football and showed their strength by lifting huge chunks of wood. We managed to get close enough to the elephants to sit on their legs, but as yet we still haven't riden one.
On the way back in to town we stopped off at a butterfly farm and orchid nursery, it was really pretty although the butterfly snaps didn't come out too great.
We had a relatively relaxed evening, drank a few glasses of wine and crashed out by 11.00.
Today we have shopped and shopped and shopped, we are going shopping again this evening in Chang Mai's famous Night Market, should be fun!
Bangkok was fun and uneventful, although we managed to replace Steve's lost phone and buy a couple of Tshirts and the general stuff you do in a city we have already visited twice! Still there must be something good about the place as we ended up staying for another 2 nights!
Anyhow, the 12 hour bus journey to Chang Mai went suprisingly fast, I wore the fetching eye mask Jess gave me from her flight in to Thailand which meant that I slept better than Steve and awoke feeling rather chirpy.
We were met at the bus stop by some friendly taxi drivers who took us to their friends guest house, thought it was a bit of a scam but hey the rooms only 2.85 a night and includes hot water.
Whilst out exploring the city we came across a friendly tuk tuk driver who offers us a tour of the city, saying no at first then realising we have nothing better to do we agree to go along with him for 2 quid. The tour takes us around a load of temples with Buddah in and we make the most of getting some good pictures. Steve also gets to set some birds free from a cage, an ancient Buddist thing. I do wonder who captures the birds in the first place though? The tuk tuk driver magically changed his vehicle and we ended up touring Chang Mai in a lovely air conditioned Mitshubishi car! Feeling templed out after an hour we head to a snake farm, just in time for a stupid show of a silly man playing with Cobra's and such like. The snake farm was rather pointless but did house some really scary snakes. Strange that most of the cages were unlocked though. Even stranger that some of the unlocked cages held some deadly snakes which were missing! After the snake farm our driver took us to a Monkey training school, which was rather a sick thing to see. Most of the monkeys had chains around their necks and during the 'show' they were coaxing them to walk on two feet instead of four, most bizare. I also managed to fall out with a couple of monkeys who I think must've taken a dislike to my t shirt, they kept on leaping at me, luckily they were behind bars. (kind of)
The highlight of our day was by far the elephant training camp. It was brilliant. We saw Elephants of all sizes and ages having a bath in the river, they were so cute! We also got to see the show, wich was much better than the other two we'd seen. The elephants came on in a parade, linking trunks and tails together. I thought I was watching a live version of Jungle Book or Dumbo. The Elephants also painted pictures, played football and showed their strength by lifting huge chunks of wood. We managed to get close enough to the elephants to sit on their legs, but as yet we still haven't riden one.
On the way back in to town we stopped off at a butterfly farm and orchid nursery, it was really pretty although the butterfly snaps didn't come out too great.
We had a relatively relaxed evening, drank a few glasses of wine and crashed out by 11.00.
Today we have shopped and shopped and shopped, we are going shopping again this evening in Chang Mai's famous Night Market, should be fun!
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Beach time, Us Dollars and back to the Big Kok (Sian)
We wanted to spend a couple of days on a beach in Cambodia before we left, so we headed down to Sihanoukville where most Khmers and tourists seem to head to for a spot of sun sea and surf.
unfortunately Sihanoukville wasn't quite what we were expecting, smelly beaches and not very good accommodation. We also found that we'd run out of the currency most used in Cambodia- US dollars, so we decide to shift our arses back to Thailand.
The journey on the Cambodian side of the boarder was extremely exciting, crossing 4 rivers each one with it's own unique ferry fashioned out of 4 old boats tied together with some wood on top! Plus the usual Cambodian roads kept us shaking around for 7 hours!
Still we made it in one piece and are now back in a world of ATM's, air conditioning and proper roads!
We both have found memories of Cambodia and now we are back in Thailand, I am wondering if we would go through it all again... Probably!
unfortunately Sihanoukville wasn't quite what we were expecting, smelly beaches and not very good accommodation. We also found that we'd run out of the currency most used in Cambodia- US dollars, so we decide to shift our arses back to Thailand.
The journey on the Cambodian side of the boarder was extremely exciting, crossing 4 rivers each one with it's own unique ferry fashioned out of 4 old boats tied together with some wood on top! Plus the usual Cambodian roads kept us shaking around for 7 hours!
Still we made it in one piece and are now back in a world of ATM's, air conditioning and proper roads!
We both have found memories of Cambodia and now we are back in Thailand, I am wondering if we would go through it all again... Probably!
A countries pain (Sian)
We knew that by visiting Cambodia we would be faced with some really shocking things. However we were not really prepared for the reality of either the Killing Fields or the Tuol Sleng museum in Phnom Penh.
We hopped in a mini bus at around mid day for the journey to the killing fields 16KM out side of the city. the road/dust track was pretty grim and went through some of the more unpleasant parts of town. The sight of a decompossing dog by the road being a good omen.
The main feature of the killing fields is a monument which is 50 feep high filled with 17000 skulls of the victims of the Khmer Rouge. It was pretty earie. I had a sick feeling in my stomach and thought that it was a little morbid for tourists to come here and pay $2 entry fee to see a countries down fall.
There are about 50 other killing field sites dotted all over Cambodia, the one we visited housed 86 Mass graves and was the final resting place of about 17,000 Khmer's.
After the killing fields we arrive at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. This Museum was once a school but was taken over and used at a prison by the Khmer Rouge Regime in the 1970's. It is still enclosed with the 2 folds of corrugated iron sheets and coverd with dense barbed and razor wire. The four school buildings were used for administration, interrogation, torture and as a prison. Most of the Khmer Rouge Regime's features are in place. The block which was used to house most prisoners is 3 stories high. On the ground floor tiny cells 2'x5' were badly built out of bricks, on the first floor they were the same size and made out of wood. On the top floor was the larger cells which housed 30 people at a time. We saw the iron racks that were used to keep the prisoners together, the racks griped their feet and meant that the prisoners were lying down for most of the day.
The 3rd school block is amass of photo's of the people who stayed in this prison. What is not clear is why they were taken prisoner. People were from every walk of life and of every age and sex. They even captured buddist monks. One picture that will haunt me is that of a mother holding her new born baby. The woman is expresionless so it is hard to guage what she was thinking. The date of this picture was 14/05/1978, a month after I was born. Sadly both the mother and child pictured died.
It is estimated that the Khmer Rouge Regime under Pol Pot's comand wiped out a quarter of Cambodia's inhabitants. 2.5 million out of a population of 8 million, although the true figure will never be known, some people estimate 3 million.
It is hard to say if I would recomend this place to other tourists. It was really moving, but an extremley important part of Cambodia's history. I can see why the people of Cambodia are so happy now, they are propably really pleased to be alive.
We hopped in a mini bus at around mid day for the journey to the killing fields 16KM out side of the city. the road/dust track was pretty grim and went through some of the more unpleasant parts of town. The sight of a decompossing dog by the road being a good omen.
The main feature of the killing fields is a monument which is 50 feep high filled with 17000 skulls of the victims of the Khmer Rouge. It was pretty earie. I had a sick feeling in my stomach and thought that it was a little morbid for tourists to come here and pay $2 entry fee to see a countries down fall.
There are about 50 other killing field sites dotted all over Cambodia, the one we visited housed 86 Mass graves and was the final resting place of about 17,000 Khmer's.
After the killing fields we arrive at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. This Museum was once a school but was taken over and used at a prison by the Khmer Rouge Regime in the 1970's. It is still enclosed with the 2 folds of corrugated iron sheets and coverd with dense barbed and razor wire. The four school buildings were used for administration, interrogation, torture and as a prison. Most of the Khmer Rouge Regime's features are in place. The block which was used to house most prisoners is 3 stories high. On the ground floor tiny cells 2'x5' were badly built out of bricks, on the first floor they were the same size and made out of wood. On the top floor was the larger cells which housed 30 people at a time. We saw the iron racks that were used to keep the prisoners together, the racks griped their feet and meant that the prisoners were lying down for most of the day.
The 3rd school block is amass of photo's of the people who stayed in this prison. What is not clear is why they were taken prisoner. People were from every walk of life and of every age and sex. They even captured buddist monks. One picture that will haunt me is that of a mother holding her new born baby. The woman is expresionless so it is hard to guage what she was thinking. The date of this picture was 14/05/1978, a month after I was born. Sadly both the mother and child pictured died.
It is estimated that the Khmer Rouge Regime under Pol Pot's comand wiped out a quarter of Cambodia's inhabitants. 2.5 million out of a population of 8 million, although the true figure will never be known, some people estimate 3 million.
It is hard to say if I would recomend this place to other tourists. It was really moving, but an extremley important part of Cambodia's history. I can see why the people of Cambodia are so happy now, they are propably really pleased to be alive.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Friday, March 04, 2005
Royal Palace, silver flooring, and a touch of bling (Sian)
On arrival in Pnom Phen we decide to check out some of the sites around the city.
Phom Phen seems like a lively city with lots of smiling faces. I found this really suprising considering what the people of this country have been through in the last 30 or so years.
One of the main hot spots here is the Royal Palace, after the bling spectacular of Bangkok our expectations were very high. The Khmer Royal family still live in the palace, unfortunately we were not invited for tea as they have a very special closed off section.
The grounds of the palace are lovely though, it's all cute flower beds, green grass and shrubbery's. What stands out like a sore thumb is a grey French building, given as a gift by Napoleon III. This building is placed directly in front of a spectacularly beautiful throne room, why it needed to be put there is anyone's idea!
We had read about the Royal Pagoda with tiled silver flooring, each tile weighing 1kg each. The floor is spectacular, however we only got to see part of it as most of the Pagoda is covered in red carpet and is used as a home for an emerald Buddha and a museum. It was interesting though.
Walking around the palace grounds are dozens of friendly Monks who came up and talked to us, one Monk even wanted his photo taken with Steve. This is the first time in our travels that Monks have spoken to us, suprising really as we have seen hundreds of them I am sure.
On our way out of the palace we were treated to a show of traditional Khmer dancing by some really cute looking children. The dance and the music was very sutle, everything seemed to flow together in almost one smooth movement. The used sticks to keep the time and a sitar for the melody. The children were dressed in brightly coloured clothes with stunning gold ornaments in their hair.
The palace was not quite as bling as Bangkok's Royal Palace, but was still weigh more sparkly than anything the British Royalty have had built.
On leaving the palace we come across a bar called the ginger monkey, run by a Brit. He sells decent Red wine, (the first Merlo we've found since leaving the uk!) and Bangers and Mash... guess what we had for tea?!
Phom Phen seems like a lively city with lots of smiling faces. I found this really suprising considering what the people of this country have been through in the last 30 or so years.
One of the main hot spots here is the Royal Palace, after the bling spectacular of Bangkok our expectations were very high. The Khmer Royal family still live in the palace, unfortunately we were not invited for tea as they have a very special closed off section.
The grounds of the palace are lovely though, it's all cute flower beds, green grass and shrubbery's. What stands out like a sore thumb is a grey French building, given as a gift by Napoleon III. This building is placed directly in front of a spectacularly beautiful throne room, why it needed to be put there is anyone's idea!
We had read about the Royal Pagoda with tiled silver flooring, each tile weighing 1kg each. The floor is spectacular, however we only got to see part of it as most of the Pagoda is covered in red carpet and is used as a home for an emerald Buddha and a museum. It was interesting though.
Walking around the palace grounds are dozens of friendly Monks who came up and talked to us, one Monk even wanted his photo taken with Steve. This is the first time in our travels that Monks have spoken to us, suprising really as we have seen hundreds of them I am sure.
On our way out of the palace we were treated to a show of traditional Khmer dancing by some really cute looking children. The dance and the music was very sutle, everything seemed to flow together in almost one smooth movement. The used sticks to keep the time and a sitar for the melody. The children were dressed in brightly coloured clothes with stunning gold ornaments in their hair.
The palace was not quite as bling as Bangkok's Royal Palace, but was still weigh more sparkly than anything the British Royalty have had built.
On leaving the palace we come across a bar called the ginger monkey, run by a Brit. He sells decent Red wine, (the first Merlo we've found since leaving the uk!) and Bangers and Mash... guess what we had for tea?!
Thursday, March 03, 2005
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