SIHANOUKVILLE

Scary moto ride from our guesthouse in Psquared (Phnom Penh) to downtown where we were catching our bus. My moto driver was much more aggressive than the one I had yesterday--there were a couple of times I thought I was going to die. Boarded our bus full of seats made for tiny Cambodians and full of Cambodian people who were intrigued by our Western features (we've grown fairly accustomed to this by now though). A 4hr bus ride is short by our standards now so it was pretty nice. At one point we stopped at a roadside "Restaurant" (wood beams with a tin roof and no walls) where ladies carrying huge bowls full of fried bugs and spiders thrust them up towards the open windows where we were sitting. We were having a great time watching the people on our bus purchase bags of them and we cringed as they ate them, snapping off their heads or wings to munch on.

We arrived in Sihanoukville, Cambodias beach community. It was grey and raining--kind of a let down. The problem with Sihanoukville being so beach oriented is that when its raining out, there isn't anything to do. The weather didn't appear to be getting any better so we only stayed one night and hopped on a ferry back to Thailand the next day. I was disappointed that I didn't get to explore Cambodias pristine islands but it wouldn'tve been fun in the rain anyways.

The ferry was tiny and the ride was a rocky one--we went through a squall of sorts. Loud annoying Cambodian pop music was played loudly over the speakers which also didn't help my nausea. Megan felt quite seasick (which we later discovered was a bout of food poisoning) so this really nice Cambodian man who worked on the ferry rubbed a Thai remedy on her temples and under her nose to make her feel better. Another example of the Cambodian kindness we experienced. People like him balanced out the people we came across that were dishonest/aggressive.

Our border crossing was a lot more plesant this time around! It was sort of a relief to be back in Thailand. Cambodia was a great experience but I wasn't too stimulated by any of the places we went. Maybe we weren't there long enough to really give it a chance but Thailand seems to have a lot more to offer.

We arrived in Trat (In Thailand, close to Cambo border) to a cozy, cheap, clean (!) guesthouse with HOT SHOWERS! Tomorrow off to Koh Chang (translation = Elephant island)!

PHNOM PENH

We pulled up to the centre of Phnom Penh (Capitol of Cambodia, pop 1 million) in our sticky bus (with tiny seats made for asians, per usual) and looked out the windows to a frightful sight. The few westerners that had gotten off the bus were being swarmed by moto/tuktuk/taxi drivers like white on rice. We prepared ourselves and stepped into the craziness. We were bombarded by a ton of drivers trying to get us into their cars or trying to take us to "The best guesthouse" (guesthouses here pay drivers a commission to drop off travellers at their guesthouse). The challenging part is trying to differentiate between the drivers who will take you where you want to go and the ones who will take you to the guesthouse that pays them.

We chose a guesthouse in one of the backpacker areas on Boeung Kak Lake. Our place had a relaxing patio that extended into the water on stilts. The lake was a nice setting even if the water is as toxic as everyone says it is. Checked out the royal palace and some cool restaurants that night. I definitely noticed a lot of stares and glares from Cambodian people in Phnom Penh--not sure if they were just curious or if they didn't approve of Westerners on their turf. Probably a mix of both.

Our moto drivers picked us up the next morning to tour the sites where some of Cambodias dark historical events took place. Weaving through the streets of Phnom Penh during the middle of the day on the back of a motorbike was terrifyingly fun. We weren't provided with helmets (sorry mom!) because nobody really wears them here. There aren't really traffic laws so you can only begin toimagine how disorganized and chaotic the roads are. Motos just speed in and out of gaps in traffic--even if the gaps are in oncoming traffic! When we hit the outskirts of Phnom Penh, all we had to worry about avoiding were potholes and huge smelly piles of garabage. I also saw a rabid dog on the side of the road.

Our first stop was the Choeung Ek killing fields. Thousands of people were killed and buried there in mass graves between 1977 and 1980 (I think I've got the dates right) during a nationwide genocide/extermination that killed about 2 million people in total. Because it was
so recent, we saw lots of bones and clothing protruding from the earth in the pits and even on the walkway we were following. Pretty chilling. The information that was posted about the significance of this site bothered me though because they compared it to the holocaust and even stated that it was "Worse than the genocide committed by Hitlers fascists." Comparing the two is just not right.

Our motos took us to the Tuol Sleng high school that was transofmed into a prison/torture camp during the same genocide. It was very eerie to walk through because they left it in roughly the same shape it was found in. They had a photo exhibit that captured the detainees starving, wounded/beaten, seconds from death and even photos of the dead. There was also an area that featured paintings done by a survivor (There were only 12 survivors out of thousands) that portrayed the different ways in which the detainees were tortured--the most cruel punishments imaginable. Some of the tiny cells we explored still had dried blood on the floor and the chains used for prisoners attached to the walls.

After a long sombre day, we went to a cozy, chill place in our neighborhood to have a nice dinner and unwind with some drinks and some world cup soccer. Next stop Sihanoukville (beaches)!

ANGKOR

I'm pretty upset that this Cambodian computer doesn't like my camera because you can't write about Angkor, you need photos. I'll write a brief description and hopefully when I get back to Thai computers later this week I'll be able to post photos (I know I've been promising photos for a while).

Angkor is this ancient city- I think in its prime it was the biggest city in the world. I could be wrong though...Most of the info about these places is in Cambodian or broken english. The most famous part of Angkor is Angkor Wat (Wat = temple). Its famous for its spectacular sunrises so me and the girls were up at 4:30am to tuk tuk (motorbike with a carriage attached) out to Angkor for the sunrise. The coolest thing about Angkor Wat is that its still used by monks. The steps into the main, tiny part of the temple were steep and treaturous (it was pretty much like rock climbing--you were using all fours) so I only made it half way up to the temple before decidng that if I went any higher I would have to be attached to a harness and assisted down by some kind of rope system. Christine and I waited on the steps while Megan went inside and did her insense prayers/bows to buddha. Our tuk tuk driver took us to see Angkor Thom (I believe part of it was Angkors library) and quite a few other amazing parts of angkor.

The unfortunate part of this attraction is that it has become way too touristy. When we stopped for lunch we were swarmed by all of the restaurant workers begging us to come into their restaurant and offering deals. The worst part came close to the end of our tour though. We were bombarded by 10-ish year old girls when we got out of our tuk tuk selling purses, water and bracelets. They grabbed at us and would not let us enjoy the scenery. If we turned our attention towards the ruins they would whine and there were so many of them that you couldn't ignore it. They'd been taught the capitol city and population of the countries where most tourists come from. So we heard "Ottawa, 30 million people" about 15 times. I bought water from one of them and the rest of them yelled at me and one of them pretended to cry when Megan didn't buy water from her. At our last Wat there was a little girl who was about 2 years old selling postcards. She couldn't speak english yet (maybe she couldn't even speak at all yet), so she had a few friends with her also selling postcards. We didn't stay long as they decided to follow us around as well. They do NOT take no for an answer. Very annoying way to end a day of great sights. We leave for Phnom Penh, Cambodias capitol tomorrow.

BANGKOK - SIEM REAP

We endured a tropical downpour to get from our guesthouse to meet our coach bus that was taking us to the border. I should've taken that as a sign of what was in store for us yesterday.

We had a 5hr trip to some middle of nowhere restaurant where we were told to get off the bus. I've gotten used to getting off and on bus after bus without being given a reason...I've stopped asking questions and I just go with it. The guy who worked for the bus company gave us visa request forms for Cambodia and told us that the visas were 35USD. I knew that they were supposed to be 20USD but whenever you ask a Thai person a question that they don't want to answer, they pretend they can't understand you. What could we do, we were in the middle of nowhere. We handed over the money and were put on an open back army style truck. That dropped us in the middle of a market close to the border. We had to weave our way through vendors in sweltering heat wearing 2-3 heavy bags. We went through Thai immigration first then walked through some kind of crossing which we thought was the border. We had to wait in the boiling sun because some guy on our bus overstayed his visa in Thailand.

While we waited some Thai begger kids hassled us from behind a fence. One of them slapped my bum to get my attention...It worked! They grabbed onto my bag and asked for money or "num num." A guy in our group gave them a couple of Baht (about one cent CAD) and they all swarmed him like vultures. Another bus picked us up and after a short drive kicked us out. More walking--finally made it to the Cambodian border. We had to wait forever after crossing the border in the hot sun for reasons unknown to us. We hopped on another bus which took us to a building where we were kicked off the bus. We waited patiently once again following the "don't ask questions, just go with it" mentality. It is the only way you can remain sane in this part of the world! We were escorted to a minivan that was built sometime in the 70's. This was a bit of a problem because our travel agent in Bangkok promised us a large airconditioned bus! We crammed 9 people into this van with no air con and one of the windows wouldn't open!

To give you an idea of how unconfortable our 6hr bus ride was...An unnamed airline pays an unnamed Cambodian political party to keep the road in terrible condition so that people are forced to fly between Thailand and Siem Reap. There are a few crazy Westerners travelling on a budget that opt for the potholed, broken bridged, never updated dirt road route. Words cannot describe how bumpy that 6hrs was, its something you would have to experience first hand to get it. There were moments during the "drive" that the three of us would just start laughing hysterically because it was such a ridiculous scenario we were in. We finally arrived in Siem Reap, covered in dirt (dirt flew in the open windows like you wouldn't believe)and exhausted (sleeping was impossible on the bus). Knowing that we were heading to the ancient city of Angkor the next day helped me through the pain and dirtiness.

BANGKOK

Megan and I left Koh Tao via a high speed 2 hr catamaran. They were blasting eminem over the speakers which was highly inappropriate because there were kids on board...We assumed that whoever selected the music didn't have a grasp of english swear words. It was pretty funny/random to hear eminem on a ferry in Thailand. It was another 8 hr bus ride from the pier to Bangkok. We met up with Christine (yay!) and checked into our guesthouse that was a stones throw from the Kao San Road. We had an early night but we were kept up by the crazy soccer fans watching the world cup in the bar downstairs. The next day we shopped Kao San--Our plans to get out and see more of the city didn't work out. I bought lots of great, cheap stuff on the kao san though. We wandered the streets for a while trying to find a bank or currency exchange for US dollars (Cambodia uses US dollars more often than its own "Riel" currency because 1USD = 4100 Riel, which = a stack of bills that don't fit in your wallet). We went out to one of the main bars on the Kao San and enjoyed a beer tower...Too hard to explain in words, but hopefully I'll get a chance to put up photos soon. We had a reasonably early night because our bus to Cambodia left at 7:30am the next morning. More about Cambodia later...

KOH TAO

Spent the past 4 days soaking up the sun (and a couple of thunderstorms) on this gorgeous island. We spent the first day doing scuba orientation...basically signing our lives away incase of lung embolisms, decompression sickness, etc. Day 2 we spent the morning in the resort pool with full scuba gear learning how to breathe underwater. The rookies all have an awkward rearly morning mandatory pool session. After spending all afternoon in the scuba classroom, Megan and I had a chance to check out the Koh Tao nightlife. Lots of very chill places just metres from the water. They throw beanbag chairs out on the beach with tables and dig holes in the sand for candles and little fires to create a mood. Very cool. Koh Tao is an island made up of tons of scuba resorts...They just started letting non-divers on the island a couple of years ago! Days 3 and 4 we piled on the boat with our scuba group for 4 open water dives (2 per day). Its not all fun and games underwater--we were tested on some unplesant skills we learned in the pool (such as filling up your mask with water at a depth of 18 metres then clearing it by breathing through your nose--scarier than it sounds). It was amazing though, the visibility was 15-20m. We saw some fabulous coral, a huge turtle, a mor eel (spelling?), a stingray, a school of squids and billions of fish. Our last night we went out to the resort restaurant (which was right on the water of course) with our scuba grad class and instructors. After a fabulous meal the younger members of the class headed down to another part of the village to a huge beach party being put on by one of the clubs. They gave out free buckets of Sangsom (Thai Whiskey, coke, vodka, and redbull) for half an hour at one point of the night...Needless to say we had a really good time. Sad to leave this island, I've had a taste of diving and I can't get enough! But alas, we have to get back to Bangkok to meet Christine and start our Cambodia adventure.

BANGKOK

Sorry my first blog entry is so late coming--I've been totally on the go since I arrived. After my night stopover in Singapore, I finally arrived in Bangkok! It was pretty overwhelming to say the least. Met Laura and Megan on the Kao San Road (the most famous backpacker hub in asia) after getting dropped a few blocks short of our meeting place (McDonalds) because my taxi driver pretended to not know what McDonalds was. People here lie about everything! Carrying my backpack along the Kao San and back to our guesthouse was the most unconfortable 10mins of my life! Sweltering heat+backpack+long sleeves = no fun at all. The three of us decided to check out a local wat (buddist temple) which was pretty amazing. There were monks everywhere! Partied it up with Megan and Laura at the Irish Pub that night. I had to fight off jet lag so I decided to have a couple of authentic vodka red bulls. Kao San is such a crazy place I can't even put it into words. Tuk Tuk drivers (crazy little 3 wheel taxis with open backs) yell at "Hey you mam, where you go I take you"--their ultimate goal is to rip off westerners though. There are no set prices for anything here so you have to bargain for everything from clothes to taxi fares. I've already had a taxi drive in circles knowing that none of us would notice to rip us off. You have to yell four crucial things when you get into a cab here: "METER, NO STOPS, NO GAS, NO GEMS, NO SUITS" because cab drivers are given commission to take you to gem stores or tailors, etc.

Megan and I took a river ferry down the chao phyra to check out Bangkok's famous Wat Arun. It was pretty spectacular. The only problem with the wats is that a lot of areas are sealed off. Monk access only? We did get inside a couple of the temples and we remembered how to do all the proper bows that Laura taught us. Megan and I shopped Kao San a bit (its basically 4/5 blocks of hundreds of stalls and stores selling counterfit EVERYTHING! then hopped on a bus for an 8hr drive to Chumpon. At Chumpon we were tossed off the bus at 2am into a holding room that consisted of a hard floor with rugs tossed in the corners. The bus driver threw vinyl pillows on the ground and from that we figured that these were our accomodations for the night. At 6am, same bus driver, got us up and back to the bus to head to the boat pier for a 3hour beautiful boat ride to Koh Tao ("Turtle Island"). I got my first Thai sunburn at 9am that day! Who knew you could burn that early in the day? Megan and I are having a wicked time here. So wicked that I can't spend anymore time in this internet place because we have so much to see!

PHOTOS: Laura in our lovely airconditioned guesthouse in Bangkok, Buddhas at Wat Arun, stickers found on buses and on boats so the monks always have a place to rest, Bangkok traffic, and the main temple at Wat Arun.