Mekong Delta Tour

we took a two day one night tour from saigon to the mekong delta.  in short it is a vast system of tributaries from the mekong river where it meets the south china sea.  extremely fertile land.  it is possible to travel on your own throughout the region but it gets a little complicated and pretty time consuming -time we choose to spend elsewhere- so we did the group tour thing.

day 1
-started with bus ride to our first stop where we boarded a lond boat with a motor.  we visited a small local floating market but only a few boats selling potatoes were around because of tet (their version of chinese new year).
-boat also brough us to a honey farm were they served us a honey/lime tea which was out of this world...mostly because it was 50% honey.  beside this farm was a coconut candy factory.  yummy candies which us suckers ended up buying.  so far the tour was a rip as these were clearly staged and not real farms or factories.  oh yeah...and the bees were swarming our coffee cups while we were drinking it.  we got the heck outta dodge after the tasty tasting.
-they brought us to a restaurant along a scenic canal.  the rewstaurant also had bicycles we could use to tour around the area for an hour.  this was a lot of fun.  i forgot how much ground you can cover on a bike.

-after lunch a woman paddled three of us on quite a tippy thin wooden canoe.  this was fun.

-we then caught a bus to bin *** where four of us waited for another tour group to pick us up to take us to our hotel for the night.  we had about an hour and this was the highlight of the tour for me.  we went to a local market (on land this time).  it was WILD!  live pigs being tied up, jumbo prawns crawling around, fish being gutted alive, live chickens tied by their feet flopping on the floor, large live snakes being sold by the handfull for dinner...amazing.
blogspot is flipping this image all on its own so please turn your head to view.  notice the tied up live chickens beside their less (more?) fortunate brothers.

bag of snakes anyone?

while waiting for the bus a woman about 40 years old asked me to play a kind of version of hacki-sac (sp?) with her.  we've seen this game played a lot in SE asia thus far.  it was a lot of fun and i surprised myself showing a little ability (i am terible at hacki-sac).  she thought i was hilarious and we played until the bus came.  i believe it was a novelty for both us.

-we stayed in can tho for night (the bus ride inhere included a ride on a large ferry after dark.  we were able to get onto the deck and let the fresh breeze cool us off) and met two girls from california in their early/mid twenties and hit it off.  there were in vietnam for their uncle's wedding.  they spoke vietnamese so it was great having them to help us understand, well almost everything.  we would hang out with then in saigon two more times before we would move on. we will definitely look them up when we get back to cali.  they're from sacramento - less than an hour from where roel is originally from.

day 2
-we visited the largest floating market in the mekong delta (tet was over!).  they sold everything on these ships (as far as food goes).  each boat has a long bamboo pole with the item that is being sold hanging from the top. we pulled up to a pineapple baot and they cut fresh ones up for us for about .60 a pineapple.  the sweetest i've ever had.

-the rest of the day involved a long boat ride through back canals to see how people lived along the river and a visit to an actual rice paper and noodle factory.  it has been passed on from generation to generation within four families that work together.  fascinating process to watch (for about 10 minutes).  ha

when we got back to saigon we had a big night out with a few people from the tour near the area where we were all staying.  we had a blast and managed to be in bed at a reasonable hour.  on our last day in saigon we needed some fun and relief from the heat so we went to a big waterpark!  look up dam sen waterpark if interested.  weeee!  the two girls i mentioned met us there and we all very much enjoyed our down-time day.  afterwards we went to a large touristy market where they sell t-shirts, trinkets, knock-offs and the like.  once again it helped a lot to have someone there to interpret for us plus they are just great fun to be with.  :)

a group pic of us at a little amusement park.  year of the tiger! (i am well aware that we are posing in front of a lion statue)

the next morning we would leave for mui ne which is north up the coast about 5 hours by bus.

we are very much keeping track of the olympics with british and australian espn.  very odd commentators.  they should not be allowed to cover winter olympics.  however i am grateful for what we do get.  go canada go!!

ps. i have gotten SO lazy that i don't even read what i've typed.  i'm just happy if i get to post at all.

Good Morning Vietnam

whoa..so it's been a while since my last update and i'm having to strech my memory for details at this point.

we left bright and early from phnom penh to catch our bus to saigon (now technically called ho chi minh city but rarely used).  an attempt of the vietnamese to reclaim the once french colonial city.  the border was less stressful than that of cambodia but still an experience.  the bus guide collected all of our passports and visas (which you have to obtain in advance) and placed them inside a plastic grocery bag in one big lump sum.  inside the airconditioned immigration building we all waited in one big group waiting for one of two agents to call our names.  kinda like bingo.  roel was dead last...we were both starting to get a little worried by this time.  haha  at least i have two passports i keep in different places.  we were probably there for a little less than two hours.  part of the journey involved the bus having to cross one branch of the mekong river on a small barge type ferry.  amazing use of every square inch of space available.  they probably had almost a dozen people inside the car nevermind the people in the trunk.

once we entered vietnam we could immediately tell the different standard of living (generalization of course).  two lane highway in each direction (never more than one in cambodia), proper signage and stores, etc.  but still a far cry from anything westerners are used to.

we arrived in saigon early afternoon.  the bus dropped us off in backpackerville and our hotel was about a 20 minute walk from there.  we are relatively proud of ourselves with finding it without having to ask for any directions.  we spent a bit more than we were budgeting for but it was worth it ($33/night).  it was more of a mini hotel than a hostel or guesthouse.  in fact it was called saigon mini hotel.

we spent the evening wandering the streets and eating local cuisine.  it is marginally more expensive than cambodia stops but not bearly as bad as we had been told.  you can still get your fried noodles or rice or pho for under $2.

the next day we headed for the main attractions in the city.  the reunification (or independence) palace and the war remnants museum.  the former was the last strong hold of southern vietnamese and US troops before viet cong (communist north vietnam) stormed the gates.  interesting to note that leadership in south vietnam wasn't much worth fighting for.  the palace has been frozen in time and is open to wonder for a few bucks.  beautiful ballrooms, bedrooms, meeting rooms, casino room, etc from the 70's.  they have repaired the gates that the tanks rolled over.  it was where the leader of south vietnam resided.  there is much more of a history of this building and land which i don't claim to remember exactly so i won't try.  worth a read though.
meeting room for government committees:

we then headed to the war remnant museum.  completely overwhelming.  i don't know when i have ever felt so little.  i identify myself as canadian but in the museum i felt as though every vietnamese was looking at me with piercing eyes.  i speak english and am as white as snow...i'm as good as american and technically am i suppose.  all i could do was keep a few steps back at each exhibit and try to say i'm sorry as best i could without saying anything at all.  there were vietnamese people talking to the pictures and even one woman hitting and yelling at a us soldier featured in one of them.  he was holding up a head with a partial body of a vietnamese civilian in celebration after a successful grenade launch.
they had us fighter planes and helicopters on display. 

the museum also had information on france's brutal ruling of the country and recreations of their prisons, etc.  picture of a guillotine used into the 1950's.

check out this link for information about this amazing museum.  warning, graphic content.

http://www.downtheroad.org/Asia/Photo/3Vietnam_Pictures/3War_Remnants_Museum.htm

the museum is portrayed from the current vietnamese's government's point of view (and rightly so). there are a few items which you may question as far as embellishments go.  however there is no denying the absolute careless slaughter of the vietnamese people.  this is the only war museum that i have seen that does not hold back on any pictures or details.  you see the real aftermath of war - not the cleaned up version.  statistics they provide are 2 million vietnamese civilians and 1 million soldiers being killed.  agent orange was spread over vast areas which have effects to this day (birth defects, etc).  villages were cut down and burned along with the inhabitants...  i could go on and on but once again i'm sure you get the idea.  i haven't even mentioned the 'interrogation' techniques employed.  roel and i discovered that we were both thinking the same thing at the time.  'this isn't so different to iraq and guantanamo bay'.  we are also both considering if we really want to reside in the us.  international policies and relations really haven't changed.  why do they think they know better?  how come when they invade countries that they have no ownership or entitlement to and kill thousands of civilians it isn't genocide, terrorism or a war crime?  is anyone being tried for murder for not actually having the original intelligence or proof of wmd's in iraq when that was the premise of invasion?  i know there are many other countries guilty of this too but why not start with our own backyard?  i would love to rant on but all i can say is that truly looking through the eyes of another people has changed my view of the world.  and i thought i saw many shades of grey before....  this museum should be made mandatory for all those entering politics.  it's a can't miss for those who ever get a chance to visit saigon.
then again what do i know?  i'm just a tourist passing through raising the same questions that have been asked for centuries.  who knows maybe they won't even let me into the us after this post.  ha

the next morning we took off on our cu chi tunnel tour.  the cu chi people lived north of saign and were primarily a farming people.  the americans considered them a threat and tried to exterminate the whole lot.  so what did they do?  they lived underground in a huge network of tunnels for twenty years.  yes that's right. 20 years.  if they didn't have an opinion on the war before the attacks they sure did afterwards.  fascinating stuff.  definitely a highlight of the trip so far.  how they cooked, bathed, went to the washroom without seeing daylight.  up to nine meters underground.  farming above ground at night.  we got to go through 50 meters of actual tunnel (not the replica tunnel set-up for obese americans visiting).  can you sense my resentment?
i could duckwalk most of the way but at one point i was on my hands an knees.  i made sure i was first in the group of about 20 because i couldn't handle being trapped on either side in the dark.
a shot of roel behind me:

i tried out a foxhole that most of the people couldn't fit in.  a group of older chinese tourists were very impressed that a white man could fit.  i had to have my arms raised to slide in.  approx 1.5 meters deep and less than 1 meter wide.  the opening was tiny.  i did get all the way in and they could have put the cover on.

in the afternoon we took it easy and explored more of downtown saigon.  i should mention that the vietnamese glad (along with hammer and sickle insingia) are everywhere.  i would also like to mention that we have walked nearly everywhere (other than to the tunnels which are a ways out of town) rather than opting for taxis in order to see more of saigon.
this is a shout-out to our friend jan back in van!  jan, notice the nice rooftop bar.  a big bottle of beer 50 cents!!!

at night we went to the only gay club in the city.  we wren't sure what to expect but it was filled with young locals wearing their fancy new knock-offs sipping way overpriced drinks.  i was the only white person there when we arrived.  the music was very electronic and not so fun so we left after one drink and went to a bar that advertises itself as being gay friendly.  good hiphop and pop music and mixed crowd including female prostitutes.

interesting note:  in bangkok the locals spoke to roel in thai. he gets many stares as he is light skinned, well dressed.  they are trying to figure out who he is as they think he is famous.  you should have seen the heads turn - like dominos falling over!  also got many intersting looks as at times people thought he was my boy for hire.  it may have depended on who was walking in front!  no confusion in cambodia as they look a bit darker usually.  everyone in vietnam is speaking to him in vietnamese and think he's showing me around.  the locals have a really good laugh when they find out he only speaks english and is actually chinese/filipino.  they usually end up pulling over a friend and explaining the situation and they inevitabley find it equally funny.  it's funny for us to and we all crack up.  haha

toodle-loo

Timeout in Phnom Penh

by the time we got to phnom penh i was in pretty rough shape.  i had a full blown fever.  unfortuantely all decent places were booked out for the next five days for chinese new year so we had to settle for something a little gross.  well managed by one family and very helpful staff - just different standards and expectations of cleanliness i suppose.  the only alternative was super luxury which was/is out of our price range.

i lay shivering under the blanket with my head on roel's lap while we watched some olympics.  we didn't leave the hotel at all.  the next day was more of the same.  except roel got out to a convenience store to buy me some basics like ibuprofen and OJ.  :)  i was very thankful not to be doing this trip solo.  luckily this guesthouse offers a dvd machine rental for $2 a day and a whole slew of pirated dvds to choose from.  this was the worst day in terms of how i felt.  i didn't leave the room except to eat from the small kitchen/restaurant downstairs (the food was actually not too bad at this place).  roel didn't feel great either as his allergies were at his worst during this time.  we cancelled our tour of the killing fields and the toul sleng museum this day.

phnom penh has a population of about two million.  even though i know this is a third world country very much in the early developing stages i was surprised at the lack of infrastructure.  for some reason i expected a little more from the big capitol city.  don't get me wrong, it was fascinating and fun to see - but it was dirty without a whole lot to do or see once you have done the couple obligatory cultural and historical things with a visit to a couple of markets.  no reason (in my opinion) for anyone to stay here for more than two full days.

the next day we drugged our selves up and went on the tour we had postponed.  i knew the general history of the khmer rouge but didn't realize exactly how brutal they were...more barbaric than the nazis.  they didn't want to waste bullets so they hacked away with machetes, shovels and hoes.  they didn't want to leave children behind in case they would grow-up with resentment towards the regime so they smacked babies and young children against trees.  this regime ended up killing almost one-quarter of the country at the time (1975-80).  not that long ago.

the stupa (shrine/memorial) erected at the killing fields sends shivers through your spine.  a tall strcture filled with skulls excavated from the mass graves on site organized by sex and age.  the museum (which you should actually visit first) is set in a old highschool which the khmer rouge used as a prison and torture centre before sending people to the killing fields aforementioned.  not much to say about this.  another disturbing look into the human condition or lack thereof.

after these activities i had used up all my energy for the day and we went back to the hotel.
next day i managed the mall for about one hour before hitting a wall...it was chinese hew year - super crowded and warm.  we managed to work our way up to the fifth flour which had an outdoor walkway and a rollerblading rink and arcade.  a decent view of the surrounds. 

during the day we could hear celebrations but there was nor street festival or activities.  it was pretty local and family oriented.
a shot of roel at the mall:

at this point we would have headed for sihanouk ville (beach area of cambodia) but we didn't want to expend energy on a gruelling travelling day and risk relapse so we decided to just recoup in phnom penh.  we splurged and bought ourselves massages at raffles hotel le royal.  very nice.  we worked out every penny we spent by using the faciltiies all day.

on our last day (at this point i'm feeling pretty good but roel is still not great with his allergies, poor guy) we hit up the russian market and central market.  during our five days we also managed to take in the royal palace and wat phnom.  we didn't do anything much past about 9pm as i was usually sleeping by then.  roel was a super swetheart as i could tell he was antsy to get out more but i just wasn't up to it.  that's all for cambodia.  see you in vietnam.

Floating Village Tour

we decided to check out the floating village near siem reap.  about a 20 minute tuktuk ride to the boat and then about a 1.5 hr tour from there.  we booked the same driver that toured us around the temples the three previous days.  kim was his name (well not his real name, he just made it easier for us).  he was not a salesman (compared to all the other drivers we encountered) and he was very honest (told us how he got paid, how he got meals at certain places for free if he got us to eat there too, which spots were worth going to and which were too touristy).  much of the information he gave us was not necesarily to his benefit.  we tried to be pretty generous with him seeing as though he probably saved us a lot of money and unnecessary hassle.

the ride to the boat was fascinating.  we drove through the poor part of town along the siem reap river and encountered many interesting sights and smells.

we elected to go on a tour with only a guide and driver as opposed to cramming on one boat with 15 other tourists.  it only cost us one dollar more paid as a bribe to the boat organizing dude.  or at least that's what it looked like...kim did all the groundwork for us.  :)

our tour guide was a 23 year old studying the cambodian and english languages.  i'm pretty sure he's a volunteer that jumps on these boats to practice english and earn tips.  he was fun to talk to and he was buddies with the driver who didn't speak much english.  they were really jovial and loved to interact.
driver on left and guide on right having a snack.

we started off in a smaller river that opened onto the HUGE tonle sap lake (googlemap tonle sap to look for scale).  the village is in the lake close to where the river meets it.  the people in the floating villages are among the poorest and rely solely on fishing for income.  it is the beginning of the dry season here so water levels are relatively low and the colour of the rivers is about that of coffee with a lot of cream.  people are swimming, fishing, doing laundry, etc.  yikes.  i think westerners would die within 20 minutes of contact with this water.

we stopped in at a crocodile and catfish farm on the lake near the village.  they also had a floating temple, floating basketball court, floating water purification facilities and floating school.  a number of these extra buildings had name plates indicating who had sponsered them.  all from europe or north america.

on the way back they asked if i wanted to drive the boat back up the river!  ha!  i did and it was fun.  roel sat on the nose of the boat and enjoyed the breeze, he didn't feel a need to try driving.

the next day we hopped on the bus for six hours to phnom penh.  by this time i was starting to have some stomach cramping and low grade fever.  roel's allergies kicked in full force as well.  it was a long bus ride packed full of tourists and locals trying to get to the capitol city for chinese new years.

Angkor Wat and Other Bits from Siem Reap

the only reason anyone stays in siem reap is because it is home base for those exploring angkor wat.  if you don't know anything about angkor wat stop right here and do some reading first.  it is the the largest and most impressive collection of temples from an ancient civilization (it makes anything the mayans did look like tinkertown - that's a winnipeg reference).  angkor wat is actually just the largest and most famous of the temples in this area.  the surrounding area has many temples, some we found even more impressive than angkor.  we purchased a three day pass for $40 each.

just a little about the town of siem reap first.  it's clean, has great food and accoms.  since it mainly exists for the purpose of housing angkor wat visitors it has a resort-ish feel.  kind of like walking the streets in a mexican touristy area at night.  open air restaurants, bars, markets filled with various cambodian silks and touristy trinkets, etc.  but like i said it's clean and perfectly safe.  we loved it as a relaxing spot after a long full day of temple touring in some pretty extreme heat (well extreme for this canadian prairie boy atleast).

we started off with some of the older and run down temples and worked our way up to the bigger hitters.  i have an interest in this type of stuff but generally don't have a long attention span for it...and for three days?!  what was i thinking?  i stuck to what my research had guided us to do and i have to say i was thoroughly impressed and our itinerary was spot on.

the structures were built over a king's lifetime and some date back to 800AD.  how do you even begin to manage a project that large with that much precision without the use of any computers or what we would consider modern technology?  how many thousands and thousands of people would have had to work on these?  we overheard one guide said that there was an estimated 500,000-1,000,000 workers on the biggest temples.  some of these structures also housed portions of the cities as well.  here are a few shots for you.

the kids on these temple grounds are relentless.  they want money for everything from guide books to knowing random canadian facts to taking pictures of them.  they are only doing what their families have asked them to do to survive so you can't get angry.  however it is an extreme test of patience at the end of a tiring (but fun) day.  once you buy a coke or something from one of them they are like sharks that smell blood.  i was almost scared at first but then just started laughing and they all laughed with me because they knew how ridiculous it was too.  oh and we saw monkeys.  you could feed them from your hand if you wanted.

and we rode an elephant.

we also chilled at the top of one of the temples with a couple of young monks.  one of them had pretty good english.  we had each other laughing pretty good.  one of the more memorable experiences there.  they gave us permission to take this picture.

i awoke one night in a panic.  i heard a noise equivalent to the noise the alien made when the little mouth came out of the big mouth against sigourney weaver's face in alien 3 (i think).  luckily roel was familiar with this noise from his travels to the philipinnes with his mom years ago.  apparently this intense noise was from a cute little gecko in our room (which i couldn't see).  who knew?

one of the highlights was one day when we finished up touring the temples early and our tuktuk driver/guide took us to watch some local vball at our request.  i ended up playing with the locals (our driver had to put some money in on my behalf and do the arranging).  it was a lot of fun but is not actually volleyball as far as i'm concerned.  ha  very different game of carrying and almsot pushing the ball completely changing the direction of it's path.  i was one of the few people who actually hit the ball because it was just natural for me but in reality it is a much lower percentage shot if you are allowed to push it anywhere you want.  woops...apparently no pictures.  only two videos that i don't feel like figuring out how to post or link to this blog.  :(  roel didn't get a chance to play.  i think our driver thought roel's pants precluded him from playing.

by the end we had a fair crowd watching the game i was in on (3 on 3 on a packed gravel court).  they all thought it was pretty hilarious when i spiked the ball because they weren't used to seeing it.  the net was pretty low too so i didin't have to jump much.  but i did swallow my pride and played a third game after losing two!  thankfully i won the third game and part of the money back that my teammates would have had to put in.  50 cents per game is a great deal for me but i'm sure they wouldn't have enjoyed seeing it evaporate.

hope you enjoyed the update.  i may come back to fill in some big gaps later today.  or perhaps i'll just move on to the next post.  missing my home continent right now as we're both under the weather but spirits remain high.  :)

Crawling into Cambodia

wow, what a day.  after 12 hours we finally made it (on saturday the 6th).  it is approx 540 kms.
we left our guest house in bangkok under the cover of darkness at 5:15am to make our 5:55 train that would take us to the border. there is no continuous transportation across the border by bus, train or otherwise.  our train started moving from hualamphong station in bangkok at 5:57.  not bad! 

each ticket is less than $2 - third class only for trains to aranyapathet (the town on the thai side of border).  roel slept for about 5 of the six hours.  haha  no surprise there for anyone who has travelled with him before.  i was wired!  we had a bench seat each facing each other and a window on the side that we could adjust.  the breeze was cool and the sun was on such an angle that it could mostly be avoided.  here are some of the highlights along the way.  unfortunately my camera could only take blurry photos while we were moving.  lets just say i was ready to throw it out the window after trying everything possible to capture any of these moments.

-bright green rice fields, wetlands, houses on stilts

-countless storks

-many large irrigation ponds and systems to flood the rice fields
-young boys in sumo type diapers working along canals with long wooden sticks doing something agricultural i assume  haha

-children floating large paper boats on a stream in a village alongside the train

-army base closer to border with a whole lotta tanks lined up

-lots of burning fields and ditches, the smell reminiscent of rosentort after harvest.  ash would occaisionally drift through our window and stain our skin and this paper i'm copying my notes from!

there were small little outpost stops along the way (we probably stopped about 15-20 times).  sometimes we stopped in the middle of nowhere and people just got off.  i mean in the middle of nothingness.  weird.  i'm glad we made the trip by train.

but now the fun begins!  we get off the train and get our tuktuk to the border...or at least that's where we think we are (driver wasn't very communicative).  we didn't know whose soil we were on at this point.  immediately we are addressed by someone wearing a uniform and brought us to his little tent and told us to fill out cambodian visa forms and he said he was appointed there by the consulate and this service was free and needed to be done.  i wasn't buying whatever he was claiming not to sell so we just trucked on along between the trucks and traffic by foot to the border.  getting out of thailand was relatively easy.  once we got to the cambodian side we started to get a little stressed.  there was the visa çheckpoint, customs shack and the stamping shack.  in between there were a whole bunch of middle men pointing you in opposite directions.  impossible to know who actually works for the government and if it is even a good thing if they do.  at the visa checkpoint you give them your passport photo (that you need to bring along), fill out a form and then give them $20 US a head.  they gave us a few varying stories about needing to pay up to $10 extra each for a variety of reasons (the amounts and the currencies to pay extra fee varied).  we refused.  our passports disappeared inside (we are in the extreme heat outside  ha) but i could see them through a window just sitting on a table ready to go. 

which way next and who do we listen to?!?!

we played the waiting game and won!  eventually a new guy came through and begrudgingly gave us our passports.  the next stop at customs was a seemingly useless form with our names and not much else.  no other tourists got waved in other than the two of us from what i could see.  step three was getting stamped into cambodia.  this little shack of a building literally had a tree growing through it.  hahaha  it was about 95 degrees with at least 75% humidity and no air movement packed body on body.  we spent an hour in that line.  good news?  i now fit a pair of shorts that didn't fit last year.  i am almost down to my highschool weight of 150 lbs!  i'm sure roel's mom would be force feeding me if she was here!

we took a shuttle to the transport depot where we took a cab to the outskirts of siem reap from where a tuktuk brough us to our guesthouse 'for free'.  he only demanded that we now use him for the rest of our travels through angkor wat (the only reason anyone comes here).  we stood our ground and it payed off.

we walked around downtown at night and were surprised with the laid back atmosphere and quaint 'laneways with restaurants and bars.'  the only thing that took some getting used to were the street vendors, etc being super aggressive.  mexico, dominican republic and bangkok have nothing on these cambodians.  they are so goo d at it too.  they could probably market their skills in other developing countries.

our guesthouse was (is) fabulous.  air-con, firm bed, large room, exceptionally clean, large rooms with marble floors.  look up babel guesthouse if interested.

that's all i can type for now.  i promise great pictures for the next post!

ping pong in patpong

hello!  it has been too long, i know.  apologies in advance because i don't have any pics for this post.  we were tired of lugging the camera around so took a night off.

the main red light district in bangkok (there are two or three) looks like a number of short parallel wide streets with clubs, bars and massage parlours two or three stories high.  they have many market stalls set-up in the wide street.  absolutely packed full and people approaching you with every offer imaginable.  the most popular is 'you wanna see ping pong show?'.  use your imagination...  you can actually choose from a number of other options from a menu as well.  i'll leave it at that.  ask me in person.  i would like to leave this as close to G-rated as possible.  haha  we ended up passing on the offers and found some excellent street vendor food.  we had bbq pork noodle soup with little bits of browned crunchy garlic bits.  to die for!  only $1.

we then bumped into a gay friendly alley (it was actually by far the least seedy street in the area...finally!).  a good choice of restaurants, bars, lounges, live music, karaoke and one dance club.

we were early (8pm) so we had an entire karaoke bar to ourselves.  drinks were cheap and the karaoke guy loved having us there singing english songs.  he kept wanting to sing duets with us.  i sang 'home' (michael buble) and 'i want it that way' (backstreet boys) with him.  in total roel and i probably sang 10+ songs.  great fun.  we also had a good time chatting with the employees there.

our next stop was going to be some dancing.  before the dancing started there was a drag show.  it put anything i've ever seen in a canadian bar to a whole lotta shame.  they knew all the words even though they don't speak much english and the back-up dancers and choreo were all very professional.  great energy.
after the show the music they played was very electronic and without much rhythm so we called it an early-ish night.  cabbed it back to our guesthouse and in bed by 2:00

the next day was a rest day and prep for our travel and border crossing to cambodia.  i can't find my usb camera adapter to upload pics.  i have to check my pack again at our new place.  we're staying at babel guesthouse in siem reap.  all for now.

more pics soooon!

last note: my email account was hacked and i can't send any more emails for the next 24 hours.  :(  sorry that i couldn't get back to those who emailed me!

Settling in Backpackerville

so we've had a few nights to settle in to the low-end digs.  roel has been dealing with it ok but there is definitely a visible ongoing (mostly inner) struggle.

well we hit the khao san road crazyness night before last.  a truly international vibe with all languages under the sun being spoken.  however it is a lot calmer and more under control than i had expected based on what i had heard, seen in movies and pictures.  but don't get me wrong still a lot going on.  fried bug vendors, buckets of alcohol, beautiful fresh fish restaurants, touristy junk, clothing, etc, etc.

yesterday was a big day with us visiting the two major temples (wat pho with the largest reclining buddha in thailand and wat phra kaew with the emerald buddha) both these temples have many other features namely the exterior construction.  you don't fully realize or appreciate the detail until seeing it in person.  we also walked by  the grand place, took a boat along the main river (chao phraya) to chinatown where there were endless laneways and markets.  so much fun to wander through that area and get lost.  we ended up at a lonely planet recommendation for dinner at the royal india restaurant.  one of the best meals i have ever had.

 

  

 

i was feeling pretty wrecked by the heat at the end of the day so we just stayed in and went to bed early.  we've had a slow morning thus far (almost noon) and we're probably going to do some people watching in the famous red light district area.  apparently there are more gawkers than anything else these days.  we will see!

Together Again in Bangkok

hello, hello!  so yes, night before last roel and i successfully reunited in bangkok.  both our flights were on time and we found each other with no problem at the airport.  our taxi from the airport to our hotel was a good intro to thai taxis and driving.  (passing cars at 120 kms/hr in the wrong lane with oncoming traffic nearing, a 'broken' fare meter...luckily i knew what it should cost so no harm there).  however i am convinced that he had a towel covering the meter which he claims was his tv???

first two nights stayed in siam square.  very westernized and upscale.  perfect place for roel to unjetlag.  fortunately for me there is only a four hour time diff from melbourne.  our first full day was spent in markets and shopping malls.  bought a few things we needed and ate some great thai coconut curries and seafood fried noodles.

neat-o escalator in one of many mega-malls in area.  all of them were about 5-7 levels.

halfway through the day exhausted, we took a nap at 6pm before we were going to head out to some nightlife but ended up waking at 1am.  :s  we went back to bed and roel got up at 4am.  ugh!  this usually means that i have to get up at the same time...he can't wait for me to wake up.  haha  so cute and annoying at the same time.  i wouldn't have it any other way.

today we transferred near backpacker central and found a not so upscale guesthouse. we settled on one after looking at about five different ones (all the ones we knew about ahead of time were booked-up!) but for about $15 a day we have aircon and our own washroom.  happy with that.

i'm on a crappy internet cafe pc in our 'hotel' and will attempt to load some pics too.  a pic of us as i type.  street in front of our place in background: Baan Sabai Guesthouse.

bangkok is pretty much as it is described everywhere else.  noisy, hectic, hot, sticky, humid, polluted, fun, exciting with many little lanes to explore.  as language is tonal it is next to impossible to pick up even basic phrases but time will tell if it's just us being newbies.

random pic:

ronald with some apparent facial reconstruction

tomorrow we'll do the main touristy things: royal palace and surrounding temples.  we are within walking distance.  we have both faired pretty well in the heat.  i felt way worse off in the dry aussie heat, actually.

ta-ta!