Cambodia to Laos - Temples, flat tyres, bribes and hammocks

We got off the bus, we went with one of the many persistent chuck chuck wagon drivers. Our hotel Hak's House was a little far out, a fifteen minute walk maybe from the town. We booked a room with a fan for the first two nights and because of Emmet's unnatural and profuse sweating, we booked the next two with air conditioning.

The first room was a bit of a cockroach flying at your face room, which was exactly what one did when it saw Niamh. Mating season I reckon. So we proceeded to try and kill it, after waiting for it to get out of the fan. We bashed it with a towel, threw it over it and stamped on it a few times. We were both screaming like girls, Niamh included. Nothing compared to the yelp we let when Niamh slowly pulled the towel back, only to see it, guts hanging out, still crawling. It was like the Terminator! Niamh danced on it, nothing fancy, just a quick reel. Then Emmet stamped on it again until we were satisfied 'he wouldn't be back'.

We hung around the town the first day. Siem Reap has lots of shops and restaurants and a Pub Street, which obviously does what it says on the tin. There were a few markets too, which we got some bits on different occasions, a nice dress for Niamh and another pair of flip flops for Emmet. We stopped off at a fish pedicure place where you put your feet in a big tank with fish that eat your dead skin. Yum! Niamh tried it out. Unfortunately, she has the most tickly feet in the world and spent most of the time dipping one toe in and collapsing into stitches laughing. The fish were not well fed on this occasion.

Two of the days there we went to see the amazing temples in Angkor. We bought the 3 day ticket, which was $40. The temples were very impressive and would definitely recommend anyone go see them, but maybe get the one day ticket instead for $20. You could do the lot in a day really, unless you were really into the whole history and wanted to stare at every thing for hours or head further out to see more of them. Unfortunately they don't let you rent scmoped's anywhere in Siem Reap, to keep the Tuk Tuk drivers in business.

The first day we hired a Tuk Tuk for 12 dollars and went to some of the temples just beyond the most famous Angkor Wat. We went to Preah Khan, Preah Neak Poan, Ta Som, Eastern Mebon, Pre Rup, Banteay Kdei, Sra Srang and Ta Prohm (we are aware this list is incredibly boring for anyone who hasn't been there, skim over it and stop moaning). Our favourite of the day was probably Ta Prohm, where Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider were filmed. The jungle has started to reclaim the temple and some of the walls have big trees growing up through them. It is quite eerie looking. The ambience is enhanced by the flocks of chinese tourists in matching hats. See if you can spot them in the pictures. It's like Where's Wally without the hiding.

While we were in the temples, we saw a spider almost the size of a small hand, Emmet's hand to be exact, with his little Mary Flinter hands. Bless. So Niamh got the camera ready, I threw my hand up very quickly, picture taken and gone like a flash. Excuse the pun.

The second day we rented bicycles and cycled out to Ankor Thom, which is a complex with several temples within it. It was great cycling around and then walking off to explore more when we felt like it. Our last temple of the day was Angkor Wat. We decided to save the best for last. We parked our bikes beside a food stall, filled our bellies with some biscuits and then headed over to the temple. It was a beautiful building and most of it was still intact. Intricate inscriptions covered the walls. We were advised by a Korean fella we got chatting to, to go at lunch time when the tour groups go off to eat, so luckily the place wasn't too busy when we were there.

When we emerged from the temple we went back to collect our bikes. However, they were no longer where we left them which worried us a bit. We found them moved a few feet in between some other bikes. We checked them and thought they were not damaged until Niamh hoped up on the bike and realised the air had been let out of the back tyre. This created an immediate sad face. A Tuk Tuk driver mysteriously appeared and offered to drive us back, we decided to walk the 8km instead. At this point, we realised Emmets bike also had an airless back tyre. Coincidence or something more sinister. After about one kilometre some lads on a bike told us that there was a fella with with a pump down this little dirt track and sure enough there was. He started to change the tyre until we pulled out our well honed signing skills and told him we just needed air. Five minutes later and one dollar lighter we were back in business.

That night we went to see traditional Cambodian dance in a restaurant. The costumes alone were amazing. Khmer dancing is all about the hands. They bend them back into awkward and mad looking positions. The kids have their hands strapped back from a young age which is slightly cruel, but it looks deadly. One of the dancers was particularly good, some of the others were very amateurish and spent most of their time pissing themselves laughing.

Our plan was to either get a massage or do a cooking course on the last day. However, we were both reaching burn out again and ended up watching CSI for the day and planing our route to Laos.

The next day we got a bus to Kratie. It was another epic bus trip. 8 hours quickly turned into 12 and we arrived in the dark without being sure if we had a booking. Sounds familiar. Luckily the guesthouse had got our email and reserved us the last room. We even had free pick up! We met a sound German couple, Suzie and Sven (or seven to the Vietnamese). We were staying in the same guesthouse and the next day we rented mopeds and went to see the rare Irrawaddy fresh water dolphins. We didn't expect to see many, in fact we thought we would be lucky to see even one. But there were loads, even some calves. It was amazing. We spent an hour and a half going 'oh', 'ah', 'look over there'!

On the way back we stopped at a little food stall and bought some famed sticky rice in a bamboo stick. It was delicious. We ate it beside the stall owner and had a sign language conversation with her. We started back to the hotel. On the way we noticed an ominous looking rain cloud. Then it started to rain in the river alongside the road, but not on us, which was fortunate. This stroke of luk was not to last however. All of a sudden we spotted rain on the road ahead of us. It was very strange, driving from dryness into a horrific rain storm. The downpour only lasted about ten minutes, right up until we arrived in the hotel in fact, but managed to soak us to the bone. Needless to say, we proceeded straight to the showers and into clean clothes.

That evening we went out for dinner and had a few beers. We said goodbye to our German friends and got ready for our next adventure in Laos.

The border crossing plan was to take a mini van to a nearby town called Stung Treng. Then get a bus to the border, then a mini van to the port and then a boat to the island Don Det. Luckily the hotel was able to organise a ticket that covered the complicated transport changes. When the mini van arrived to pick us up it was already over crowded. We just about managed to squeeze in. We thought we would be the last people picked up, how wrong we were. They must have packed twenty something people into a twelve seater minivan without air conditioning. This was fun enough until we got a flat tyre. Our second flat tyre of the week, including the bikes! We stood in off the road beside houses on stilts, cows grazing at the side of the road and half naked children. A good send off from Cambodia!

The sketchy conductor kept trying to sell us tickets for the next leg of our trip. He told us we couldn't buy bus tickets on the island, which doesn't really make sense and told one of the lads who was going to cross the border the next day that it would be closed. Our bull shit metres were immediately on alert. We decided, strangely enough, not to hand over fifteen dollars to a stranger we may never see again for a ticket that didn't make sense. We found out later that you could buy tickets on the island and the price he offered was too much. Shocker.

He offered to change money to local currency kip and told us that people wouldn't accept dollars on the island. We didn't believe him but decided to get some kip anyway just to have it. Afterwards we were kicking ourselves thinking we had been slightly scammed. We have learned to be very cautious of friendly charming strangers who tell you there is a problem, but they have a solution! We mentioned it to an expat we got talking to later on the island, and he told us the rate actually wasn't that bad which made us feel better.

We arrived at the border, which was a dirt road with a metal barrier and walked up to the Cambodian office to get our exit stamps. We had been warned about bribes at some of the smaller border crossings, but have been lucky until now. The officers asked for two dollars each to stamp our passports. They were so blatant and unashamed. They had their briefcase that they put the money in sitting on the table in front of them. We had kept a dollar each in a separate pocket. We told him we only had a dollar and after thirty seconds of saying we had no more money he relented, gave us our passports and sent us in our way to the Laos side.

We had discussed the whole bribe issue prior to arriving at the border. The corruption is quite frustrating and it feels wrong giving into it. However, we are not in Europe and things work differently in this part of the world. We could stand there and argue, but at the end of the day, they have the power. They decide whether we can get through or not and for the sake of a dollar it was not worth the fight for us. On the optimistic side, at some of the crossings we had been warned about, we came across no problems. It does appear that things are starting to change at some of the more popular borders, so you can only hope that with time, this corruption will be tackled.

We then went to the Laos side to get our visa, which cost thirty five euro. In Cambodia, everyone pays the same amount for a visa. In Laos, it depends on where you are from. We were not able to find out how much Irish citizens have to pay in advance. We knew it would be between thirty and forty two dollars. We then paid our second bribe. Again, he wanted two dollars each. We said we only had one each; after thirty seconds of repeating this we got our passports back and boarded another mini van, not dangerously overcrowded this time, and drove to the port.

We went to the dock to look for our 'ferry', which was actually a small wooden kayak. A German expat steered it to the island. We decided to go to the south of the island which is quieter than the north. We didn't have accommodation booked. We checked out a few places and found some wooden bungalows with hammocks looking out over the Mekong. That was our bed for the first night. We went for a walk while the room was being cleaned and found some beautiful huts further down with a great chill out area and booked in for the following night. The bungalows were great and we really enjoyed a few days of sitting in hammocks, reading, chatting to the other travellers and generally chilling out.

We went out for dinner the first night to King Kong restaurant, which is run by a Scouser and his Laos wife. It was a cool place, good music, good food and good company. We had a few drinks with the owner and a few travellers who were hanging out there too and were great craic. We ended up going back every evening.

Feeling refreshed and relaxed we set off on a bus for Savannakhet. Little did we know, this bus journey was to undo all of our chilling out. It was the single most frustrating journey either of us have ever undertaken. Considering we have gone overland to get here, this is quite an achievement. We got a mini van from the mainland to Pakse, which of course was over crowded, sure how else would you travel? It arrived in late. We then boarded a big bus which was to bring us to our final destination. This bus proceeded to stop every 100 yards to pick up passengers. Why these people didn't go to the main bus stop literally just down the road is beyond me. It took us about an hour just to get out of the town, which at this stage meant it was time for a food break of course. We then repeated driving and stopping every ten to twenty minutes for the rest of the journey. Luckily the driver was a maniac and made up some of the time while playing with our lives. We arrived to the bus station two and a half hours late. We were tired, grumpy and ready for bed.

However, our 'adventure' was not over yet. The Tuk Tuk drivers told us that our destination was too far away and wouldn't bring us. We were at a loss, we thought we were 2 kilometres away from the town centre. We assumed they were trying to just get more money out of us. Then some people with a mini van told us they would bring us. We weren't entirely comfortable with the arrangement, but didn't really know what else to do at nine o clock at night in the dark. He told us we would leave at ten, so we had another hour of waiting time to enjoy. At ten a large local bus appeared and we were loaded onto it. I think they were just letting us sit in the van until the bus arrived. The whole thing was very confusing, but they really helped us out. We climbed over the sacks of rice and squeezed into our broken chairs. It turns out our bus never stopped in Savannakhet like it was meant to, but let us out 30 kilometres away in the middle of no where without telling us. The conductor was a rude dick anyways, but leaving two people stranded is pretty shitty. I hope he believes in karma and comes back as one of those grilled chickens that were stuffed in our faces at every food stop, all five of them.

So we finally arrived at the bus station, which is two kilometres from the town centre. We flagged down the only Tuk Tuk and asked him to bring us to the guesthouse. He told us it was closed, but he could bring us to another one called Leena Guestouse. Our immediate thought was 'hmm, we have heard of this before, I suppose you know a fabulous guesthouse, which in reality is not so fabulous, but will give you a nice commission for bringing us.' We asked to be brought to the centre instead and we could find somewhere from there. In the centre we saw a westerner. Niamh bolted off the Tuk Tuk faster than lightening and asked him about the place he was staying. He said a lot of he places were closed and his was meh. So the Tuk Tuk driver was telling us the truth after all. The second time in one day a Tuk Tuk driver told us the truth and we thought he was lying. Maybe they don't deserve the bad rap! We took his advise and asked him to bring us to Leena Guesthouse. Stat. The place was grand and was our home for two nights.

The main reason for stopping in Savannakhet was to break up the long journey north and use the Internet to do some research and make some bookings, that we had been putting off for a while. We had been without the Internet for almost a week, so some Facebook and email time was also in order. The town itself is pretty mediocre and not really worth visiting. We took a quick cycle around it in the afternoon and had lunch in a small Thai restaurant. Luckily, we were occupied with our Internet jobs most of the day.

Follow the link for more photos.

Cambodia - friends, beaches and booze

We crossed the border from Vietnam to Cambodia with no hassles what so ever. When we got on the bus the conductor said if we gave him the money he would sort the visas out for us. We were a little sceptical but all the other people on the bus, who were Asian, were giving him money so we decided to do as the locals do. It was a good decision and we avoided having to approach any stern looking visa people until getting our stamps and didn't get bribed which was our main concern after hearing so many stories.

We headed to our guesthouse in Phnom Penh. The staff there were the nicest we have come across but the place was filthy. Emmet had to ask to have the sheets changed on his bed. They came back with dirtier sheets, which we didn't think was possible. We moved rooms the following day. It was a bit cleaner but still not great. Needless to say, we slept in the sleeping liners.

We met Jerry and Aisling from Skerries in the guesthouse. It was great seeing some familiar faces and we had some good times exploring the surrounding bars. Poor aul J dog wasn't feeling the best, so Emmet pumped him full of some drugs and he started feeling better after a day or so. We took it easy the first night and hit an Irish bar, which is officially our first of the trip. This is quite a feat, especially considering how many we passed by, especially in Mongolia for some reason. We had a few happy hour beers and had a good chat.

The next day we went on a tour to see a prison and the Killing Fields that they kept and tortured people in. A sad and eye opening experience and an awful part of human history. It was very different from visiting the CuChi tunnels in Vietnam. While in CuChi tunnels they talked about the fighting between the American and Vietcong, there was no mention of the ordinary civilians caught up in the fighting or the fact that the North and South see themselves as different and this was the real fight. It was quite light hearted, oh here is a tunnel you can climb in and here is a giant bombed out tank you can sit on. The tour in Cambodia focused on the pain that events caused the civilians and the tragedy of the genocide.

A little history lesson first.  In 1975, the Khmer Rouge, headed by Pol Pot took control and forced millions of people from their homes. They had a vision of a communist agricultural based society and killed anyone who stood in their way or anyone they suspected of standing in their way. They slaughtered a quarter of the population and made life miserable for everyone else. They set up communal farms which were actually slave labour camps where many people were worked and starved to death.

The prison we visited was once a school but was converted into a place to hold 'traitors', which is anyone who is from the city, educated, foreign or said anything against the Khmer Rouge. It consisted of a number of buildings with tiny makeshift cells and specific rooms for torturing people. They displayed countless head shots of the prisoners and also had some implements of torture and pictures of people that had been tortured. It was a pretty depressing looking dank building surrounded by wire.

The killing fields were situated further outside the city, in what first appears to be a lovely shady tree lined spot. We done an audio tour which provided some background information. The buildings had been taken apart after the Khmer Rouge were ousted so the tour led us to the spots where they used to stand and explained what was there. The mass graves, however, still exist. There are loads of mounds in the ground, that look like little hills at first glance but are actually pits they threw hundreds of bodies of men, women and children in. The skulls have all been excavated and are displayed in a glass building in the middle of the field and demonstrates the scale of the killing. However, not all bones were excavated and some have surfaced after the rains and are visible in the graves. Bits of clothing are also scattered around the field. The most harrowing thing we saw was the killing tree where they smashed babies heads off to kill them. The audio tour provided some stories from Cambodian people who survived. They told accounts of the general conditions, the murders, the rapes and the hardship they suffered during that time.

Seeing what happened put things in perspective. Anyone over 37 would have been alive at that time. Our hotel owner told us his story just before we left. He was just a child when his family were ordered to leave the city. They lived in a forest for 7 months and sold the clothes off their back for rice. His family managed to escape to Vietnam and then onto France where he grew up. He was definitely one of the lucky ones. We were all pretty depressed after that so just went back and chilled for a few hours.

Later we headed to a great restaurant called Friends that trains street children how to work in a restaurant. They provide the training and work experience so they can get a job. The food is great as well. Then we went for a few beers.

We went to a lot more of the sights when we first started travelling but we have seen so many temples, palaces and pretty buildings that we don't really go now unless they are particularly special or different. We tend to just wander and soak it in instead. We went on a walking tour of the city. We only made it half way though, when the hunger set in and then the laziness set in so we headed back to get ready for deadly night out.

So we saved our night out for Full Friday. First, we went for dinner on plastic chairs for 2.5 dollars including a beer. We also had the entertaining  company of a rat. We didn't get bitten or die of some mad rat related disease (yet) so i'd still go back.

We went looking for a bar where Jerry and Aisling had seen a pool table and a load of hookers playing on it. Jerry did say playing on it, so I didn't ask any further questions. Best not to know I reckon. On the way we saw a different place with a pool table and went in there. Don't worry though, there were hookers included. Well one, she chatted up an aul fella up at the bar and they stepped outside for a nice chat. Romantic. The beer was cheap though. Plus they were blaring out Mr. John Fogarty, you can't ask for much more than that (the place me and Niamh had breakfast every morning by the river had "just rollin on the river" on the back of the staffs t-shirts, they love Credence here. Deadly buzz!).

After about a billions hours of playing one game of pool we headed to The Zepplin Bar where the DJ had a serious vinyl collection. We got a few requests in and drank some cheap, cheap beer. The owners little kid was in the bar. He was really cute, as all Asian babies are so we started waving to him. Most kids in this situation either wave back, give you the evils, or run crying to their mothers. This particular child gave us the finger, charming! His mother was all embarrassed and grabbed his hand and he started giving us the rock sign. Maybe that was what intended at the start or maybe that's what he wants us to think!  

Longest game of pool ever

Scanger Cans

Then we headed back to a bar that had a gig on in a tuk tuk ( or as Emmet says a chuck chuck wagon). The Memphis Bar was packed when we arrived and the band were, in the words of O' Louda, savage.  It was a great night. It was the bars 8th birthday and they had a cake and all. Members of the crowd who could play drums, base etc, got up and joined in.

Everyone was thrown out about 4ish and we headed up to another bar called Mr. Butterfly. Oh yes, a vest top short of a strip bar. A rather classy abode. We had a few there, not before Niamh did a nic nac on our guesthouse. The lady in the bar asked us where we are from. We replied 'Ireland'. All very normal until she nearly pissed herself laughing and walked off. Her loss! We fell back to our guesthouse and rang the bell about 5ish.

We had some heads on us the next day. It was a write off for Niamh who was in bed all day. In the evening we peeled ourselves out of the pyjamas and went to the night market. It was the best one we have been too. They had some sort of talent show on with skinny teenagers dancing out of time to crap pop music. It was hilarious. All the little kids were standing in front of the stage copying their dance moves. We had Cambodian barbeque. You pick whatever food you want, including mystery meat on skewers and the ladies cook it up for you. You sit on the ground on mats under a canopy. We also had some sugar cane juice, which is delicious. We all went to a real nice bar facing onto the river that night. We played cards and watched the fireworks going off up the bank of the river. Good times.

So both couples went our separate ways for now but we are hoping to all meet up in Loas in a few weeks. Jerry should be back to full strength by then. So who knows what'll happen there and how outrageous his Tom Jones goatie will be.  I'll only be Delilah if he's still got it.

The next stop was Kep. After 7 weeks of action packed traveling we decided it was time to stop and rest. Kep Lodge seemed the perfect place to do this. There is a swimming pool, a beach and crabs ( to eat, not the STD, just to clarify). We stocked up on some books and sun cream and spent a couple of days doing nothing.

Deco the Gecko, our friendly room mate

After our adventures in Dalat we wanted to get out on the skooters again. We decided to drive out to some caves. Firstly, we bought petrol from someone on the side of the road selling it out of a pepsi bottle. This is the Cambodian way! Our map was not very accurate. In fact it was a hand drawn scribble on a piece of paper. It is stretching to call it a map. We inevitably got lost but happened to drive past two American lads we met in Saigon who were getting lunch in a small shack at the side of the road. It was a very random encounter and we deduced that it was a sign that we should meet for beers in Siem Reap.  We were hungry and getting burned by the midday sun so decided to stop for lunch in said shack. We were given green stringy things mixed with white stringy things mixed with spices. It was really nice and no food poisoning so far! The family were lovely. The father had a small bit of English and chatted until the language barrier took hold. At this stage you just sit and smile! I think the were surprised to see two groups of whiteys in one day.

We headed off in search of the cave. Lucky the drive was savage, cause the cave was mediocre. We paid a dollar to the make-shift ticket sellers and then gave another guy two dollars to lead us through. The locals had set up a temple in the caves. The had loads of Buddhas and 7 headed snake statues on display. We had been told about a swimming cave which sounded like exactly what we needed. Unfortunately the reality was that you wouldn't be swimming in anything but rubbish and stale cave water. We decided to give it a miss. We have avoided enough infectious diseases so far without tempting fate.  We drove back a different way through the salt fields. We got there at the perfect time of the day when the sun wasn't too high so you could see the reflection of the sky in the water. It was pretty amazing looking. We continued on to end the day under a palm tree at the beach. Unfortunately we got lost and ended up at the Vietnam border guarded by scary looking dudes with guns. Oopsies. We have had enough border crossings so turned around and headed home.

 

Say he was 'bacon' on the back of that bike

About 10 minutes from our hotel we ran out of petrol. There was a little restaurant so we popped into to see if they would sell us some petrol from a Pepsi bottle. They didn't but one of the customers jumped on his bike and legged it up the road to another shop and came back with some. We now had more petrol than we needed so took this to mean we should not go home, but should instead eat crab. We went to a little shack in crab market and feasted ourselves. I have only had crab once before but it is delicious. It is definitely a delicacy though, there is not much meat on it. We had to order some rice to make sure we had enough fuel to drive home!

We went biking the following day as well. We went to get petrol and the kid who served us tried to short change us. Little did the little fecker know that Niamh Kirwan is as tight as a weasels arsehole and wasn't falling for that trick. This time we stayed more local and went to see the shells of villas where the rich and famous of Cambodia lived before the Khmer Rouge burned down their houses. Kep is a lovely place but it is very quiet and the empty buildings give it an eerie feeling.

We decided to make up for missing the beach the day before and headed off for a dip. We were walking barefoot in the sand looking for somewhere to put down our picnic blanket and spend a few ours reading and swimming. All very Hollywood movie, until we came across raw sewerage being pumped into the sea. We threw our shoes back on and drove promptly home to wash our feet. We decided the swimming pool at Kep Lodge was the safest bet.

The next stop was Kampot, which is the provincial capital and set on a riverside. We stayed in Bodhi Villa a little outside the town. It is a really amazing guesthouse. The common area looks out onto the river and is a great place to meet people. It is very relaxed. There was even some mad hippies meditating on the floor when we arrived. Knobends. The first day it was pissing rain all day so we sat around and read and chatted to people. We got talking to two Aussies who invited us to a gig in the town that night, so we obliged. The band was very good. They played rock covers. We stayed out till the bitter end and kept the place lively till the wee hours of the morning and were told to go home. The bar staff were sound. Niamh arm wrestled the bar tender and lost. She was ridiculously strong. The bar owners had a kitten and puppy who played all evening. Well attacked each other in a friendly way. Niamh had been petting the kitten all evening and went to pick it up at the end of the evening to be startled by a strange squeaking noise. The kitten had a mouse in its mouth. It got a fright and dropped it. The mouse went scurrying across the floor until Niamh dropped the cat in fright and it pounced in it again. There was some fierce hand washing done.

We were out of action the next day with arguably the worst hangovers of the holiday. We went for a walk down the town and then generally slobbed around, which is allowed on hangover day, no judging. Then we prepared ourselves for the Friday the 13th party. The owner played with his band. We creepily stalked people to chat to, which you have to do if you are in a couple, as you are lepers to other travelers. We got talking to some expats from the UK but they weren't much craic. We found some Cambodians who willing to talk to us, so talk we did. Niamh even learned a Khmer dance. They were sound. We were once again the last ones in the bar with two Aussies, one of whom was the spit of Johnny Depp in fear and loathing. He was a nutjob as well, but in a good way. We stayed up to watch the sunrise and then let the staff get some kip.

We have just arrived in Siem Reap which will be our cultural liver mending stop with hopefully some fantastic pictures. We enjoyed a 14 hour bus journey, which wouldn't have been as bad if we had been prepared, we underestimated the journey by a mere 6 hours. Luckily we were tired enough to sleep half of it away. It was pretty uneventful except for stopping in a supermarket to buy a packet of crisps and finding the only flavour available to be caramelised squid. Mmhh. Until next time....