 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Week 44 - Y2 (Dec 31st to Jan 6th) |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Sun., Dec. 31:
We got up relatively early to start our hunt for a
place to stay all over again. Same routine-- Nicole
and I parked ourselves at a cafe with the bags while
the others hunted. We managed to secure two places,
both in riverside bamboo huts (this is where most
people stay in Pai). Kind of like camping, except
with running water and shared bathrooms! I was just
relieved that we had anywhere to stay at all. Our
place was clean and decent, and had a nice lounge
overlooking the river.
While Ryan and Lindsey napped, I explored the town a
little. It's a nice town, very friendly, relaxed.
Way better atmosphere than Khao San in Bangkok. I
kind of wish we had more time here. I spent the rest
of the afternoon reading my book in the riverfront
lounge.
For dinner, we walked slightly out of town to Fu-Bar,
which has a great mountain view. Then we came back to
our huts-- the owner was having a campfire with free
food for his guests. Unfortunately, Morgan and Nicole
had come down with a bout of food poisoning, and spent
most of the night throwing up. We did meet an Austrian
couple, Carl and Nina at the campfire; and they
decided to come out with Ry and Linz and I.
Everyone in Pai had been talking about Bebop Bar all
day, so we figured that that was the place to go for
the countdown. Bebop was the first live music bar in
Pai, and it's still the most popular. When we got
there, it was packed, and there was a not-very-good
band playing. We stayed long enough for the
countdown, and then went off in search of a bar that
actually had some breathing room. We ended up at a
roadside bar that was filled with expats and Thais
spilling out onto the street-- very cool relaxed vibe!
I met the owner of the bar-- she's a Malaysian girl
with a Thai boyfriend. I guess people come from all
over to live in Pai! After we had our fill of
merriment, we walked back to our hut and crashed hard!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mon., Jan. 1:
Last night was my last night with Ry and Linz-- I'm on
my own now! From here I'll go to Cambodia, and
they'll go to Laos.
I got up early today to bus back to Chiang Mai--
there's no direct bus to Bangkok, so I've got to
backtrack. It's going to be a long 2 days of bussing
and waiting around! When I got back to Chiang Mai, I
had to book a bus back to Bangkok, which was more of a
pain in the ass than I thought it would be. There's
all different companies, so you just have to go around
to each booth and ask the price and see if you can
bargain it down. This took about an hour, but I still
had hours to kill, so I sat myself down in a coffee
shop and finished my book. It's going to be a long 12
hour bus ride!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tues., Jan. 2:
5am- back in Bangkok, but I'm not sure where! I was
dropped off at the bus station, but I didn't really
know how to get back into town, and it was a full 12
hours before my flight to Siem Reap, so I bargained a
taxi driver down to a reasonable price to take me to
Khao San just for a couple of hours, to check email,
eat breakfast, so on. Imagine my surprise when I get
on the internet and find out that there were bombings
in Bangkok on New Year's Eve! I guess it's fortunate
that we weren't there . . . Khao San Road seems much
quieter this morning-- definitely lacking the
"carnival" feeling that it had the week that I was
here.
Now I've just got to wait around some more til I get
my flight . . .
Later on Tues., Jan. 2:
The flight to Siem Reap was only 40 minutes! When the
plane landed, and I had gotten my visa all sorted out
(you buy it once you get there), I then had the task
of figuring out how to get to my guesthouse . . . I
had already booked a room, and they were supposed to
come to the airport to pick me up, but I guess the
internet had crashed, and no one was there for me!
However, there were a gazillion tuk tuk and moto
drivers all yelling "Lady, lady, where you wanna go?"
I had heard that drivers in Cambodia have a tendency
to take you to the wrong guesthouses in order to try
to to get a commission, so I was a little wary of
getting in with one. I did find one that seemed nice
enough, and sure enough, he actually did take me to my
guesthouse. Thank god! My room actually turned out
to be way nicer than anything I had in Thailand-- so
far I'm impressed!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wed., Jan. 3:
Today was my first day at Angkor Wat. Most people get
a three day pass that allows you free access to any of
the temples for those 3 days. I rented a tuk tuk
driver for the day (he drops me off wherever I ask and
waits for me), and he took me to Angkor Wat proper
first. It is possibly the most beautiful thing I have
ever seen. Angkor Wat is a temple city, complete with
walls and moats and so on that was built by the Khmer
empire in the Medieval period. Angkor Wat is the
largest religious building in the world. It's mostly
made from sandstone, and there are incredibly detailed
stone carvings on every surface. I can't even
describe what it's like, and my pictures won't be able
to do it justice either.
The next stop was Banteay Kdei, which was a smaller
and slightly older temple, in moderate state of ruin.
What was beautiful about this one was that there were
way less tourists, and there was a very peaceful air
to it. The last temple for today was Ta Prohm, which
some of you may recognize as the set from the Tomb
Raider movie. Ta Prohm is in quite a state of ruin--
crumbling stones everywhere, strangler vines and trees
growing out of stone-- but that's what makes it so
incredible to see. When you're there, you really feel
like you're an explorer or something (except for the
gazillions of tourists)
I guess Angkor Wat is kind of the trendy new spot for
wealthy Europeans to vacation, because there are tons
and tons of fancy hotels here, and actually it's not
nearly as cheap as I thought. There's still a lot of
obvious poverty among the Cambodians, but I haven't
seen any out and out begging-- they're always trying
to sell something. For example, many orphans are
trained in stone carving and traditional art, so that
they have a trade. Also, landmine victims are often
trained as classical Khmer musicians, and frequently
play outside of the temples; and the blind are often
trained in massage. Cambodia is definitly a third
world country, but you can really see the effort for
improvement. So far, the vendors have been
aggressive, but also incredibly charming and smiley
(sadly, a lot of the vendors are very young children
who can't go to school because their family needs the
money).
After a short rest back at the guesthouse, I went to
see a traditional Khmer dance performance-- it was
quite beautiful, with a lot of precision and attention
to detail. I noticed some similarities to classical
Indian dance (Actually, while Cambodia is
predominantly Buddhist, most of the temples in Angkor
Wat are actually a mixture of Buddhist and Hindu.
Many of the carvings tell ancient Hindu stories)
Back at the guesthouse, I met a guy from Montana, and
a guy from Scotland, both long term travellers. It's
really really easy to meet people when you're
travelling alone!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thurs., Jan. 4:
My second day at the temple. I got the same tuk tuk
driver for the day. His name is Sokaom, and he's
awesome!
First we went to Angkor Thom, which was a massive
ancient city. Within the walls of the city, there are
several temples. The first one I saw was the Bayon,
which was gorgeous, but covered with tourists. There
are Buddha faces carved in all the towers, which kind
of make eery reflections depending on the light. It's
also kind of a climb-- one of the big architectural
things from this period was the idea of the "temple
mountain", and that means a lot of very very steep
stairs! I saw several more smaller temples within
Angkor Thom, and it was nice and quiet there.
When I was finished with Angkor Thom, Sokaom took me
to Preah Khan, which I think was my favourite of the
bunch. This one is in quite a state of disarray--
stones everywhere, things crumbling, trees growing out
of it-- similar to Ta Prohm, but minus the tourists.
Also, in the mid afternoon light, there were gorgeous
streaks of pink and green coming out in the sandstone.
My last stop for the day was Phnom Bakheng, to see the
sunset. Phnom Bakheng requires a short hike up a
hill, and the remains of the temple are at the top.
But then there's even more climbing-- it's another
temple mountain! These stairs were incredibly steep
and actually kind of scary, but an entire tour group
of elderly Koreans could do it, so I figured I
shouldn't have any problem! I did come down before
the sunset, though, because the idea of trying to get
down those stairs in the dark was not appealing.
Apparently everyone wants to see the sunset from Phnom
Bakheng, because around 4pm, people just kept on
pouring up the hill, and by the time the sun started
to set, the whole temple was packed with people! I
know tourism is Cambodia's ticket for improving their
future, but god! Tourists drive me crazy (I say this
with the realization that I, too am a tourist).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Friday, Jan. 5:
My last day in Siem Reap. I had booked Sokaom again,
but he was sick and I ended up with another driver who
wasn't as good! Ty was a little strange, and kept on
hitting on me. Cambodian men certainly aren't shy . .
.
Today I visited some small ruins of temples, and then
went on to Ta Keo, which is the steepest of the
mountain temples, and then finished with one last
visit to Angkor Wat. The second time was even
better-- I noticed much of the intricacy in the stone
carving, and I found even more nooks and crannies that
I hadn't noticed before.
When I came out though, I couldn't find my driver-- he
was late to pick me up! This was the first time I
felt a little flustered here-- I was being swarmed
with vendors and tuk tuk drivers, and moto drivers all
yelling "Lady, come this way" or "Lady, where you go?"
or "Your tuk tuk driver is no come. Take me instead".
It was kind of intimidating, but finally Ty showed
up. I wanted to buy some presents for friends and
family, so I asked Ty to take me to the market, but
instead he took me to these fancy souvenir shops that
are geared towards rich tourists! I miss Sokaom! I
did end up buying a few things, but only because all
of the profits were going towards the orphanage.
After a short rest at the guesthouse, Ty took me back
out to see a little bit of the town of Siem Reap.
It's really small, and not particularly interesting.
Siem Reap has frequent power outages, and when we were
driving past, the market was in darkness, only lit by
candle at each stall. I bought a few little things.
Back at the guesthouse, I ran into Douglas, the
Scottish guy, and we ended up having a few beers at a
restaurant down the street-- not much night life in
Siem Reap! But early morning for me tomorrow-- on to
Phnom Penh . . .
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sat., Jan. 6:
I got up early this morning for the bus to Phnom Penh,
which is the capitol of Cambodia. I was supposed to
be picked up from my guesthouse and taken to the bus
station, but the owner messed up and forgot to arrange
a ride for me! At the last minute, he had to find a
motorbike driver to take me with my backpack to the
station. I am NOT a fan of moto taxis in Southeast
Asia-- they all drive like maniacs, and carry tons of
stuff on their bikes, and no one seems to wear
helmets. Anyway, I made it just in time for my bus.
I had been hoping to sleep on the bus, but that was
quite impossible, as the driver was blaring Asian pop,
and he had to honk the horn every 2 seconds to dodge
traffic. The roads were a little iffy too-- their
highway is not very well paved, and barely has room
for 2 cars, much less 2 buses trying to pass each
other!
I made it to Phnom Penh around 2pm. The bus dropped
off us at some city square, and as soon as we stopped,
there were taxi drivers surrounding us, and trying to
come on the bus, lobbying for customers. It was quite
overwhelming, especially when you've just arrived into
a city and you have no idea where you really are. I
had a business card of the place I was hoping to stay
at, and I showed my tuk tuk driver, and fortunately he
took me to the right place. Must have been my lucky
day, cause I got the last room, and also the cheapest
room! It's kind of ugly, but it's secure anyway, and
somewhat clean.
After I dropped my stuff off, I walked to the Royal
Palace, which was nice enough, but seemed kind of dull
after Angkor Wat. Then I walked to the riverfront and
had dinner at a restaurant along the river. After the
beauty of Angkor Wat, Phnom Penh is heartbreaking.
There are little children begging everywhere, and they
come right up to you in the restaurants and try to
sell little trinkets, or just flat out ask for food
("Yum yum?" they always say). I never know what to
do. I don't want to just give them money, because I
know that throwing money at the problem isn't going to
change anything, but it's so heartbreaking to be faced
with such poverty.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|