Thursday, December 4, 2008
Getting Lazy!
Yet again I have left it so long I have had to post TWO blogs so enjoy your bedtime reading! If anyone is struggling to sleep, this should be just the ticket!!!
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Cambodia-Been There, Done That!!
Well our cambodia stay was short and sweet but we are very behind schedule due to a trip to Germany for Nick and a certain trip into the front of a minibus for me! So we decided on the main sights of Phnohm Pehn and Saim Reap and Battenbang (which didnt happen in the end as we met some bikers in SR who said not to bother!)
So we crossed into Cambodia and got to a place called Krachie. Nnow this place was an absolute dump! What was probably once a nice city with a town plaza and market square had been completely wrecked by the Khmer Rouge regime and with the country being left as one of the poorest in SE Asia, and after having any intellectuals murdered about 30 years ago under this regime, its not likely to get much nicer in the forseable future!
Anyway, if this was Cambodia, it probably wasnt going to be the best part of the trip! Anyway, the next day we upped and left pretty early as we were taking the 'scenic' route which meant slow progress through mud! but with a lovely view of the Mekong River for most of it! Anyway about 50km through the 80km off road section and the inevitable happened...my bike started over heating! this meant even slower progress and its not as if we had much time to spare anyway!!! Anyway, as luck would have it my bike over heated (again) outside an old lady's hut so we stopped to let it cool down. Then the lady of the house came out and in her best charades told us not to go any further as the road became impassable and we should go back about 1Km and find a boat to take us across the river to the road the other side which was much better. Anyway, taking her advice we back tracked and found a bridge that crossed onto an island and then a 'boat!' to take us across the river for a bargain $5 for the both of us! This was a lovely river crossing and the road on the other side was 100% better so we actually made it to PP just before dark! I'd hate to think what would have happened if we hadn't met this lady...We'd probably still be on the road!
Anyway, PP was more gloom as the history of the Khmer Rouge regime is the grounding of most of the tourist attractions. These are namely S21 (the detention and torture camp for prisoners) and the killing fields (unsurprisingly called that due to the fact they are fields where they killed people! Like I said, the intellectual people of Cambodia were all slaughtered in the 70's so they havent got any marketing guru's to come up with catchy names!) The highlight however was going to an army artillery range and loosing of a clip from an AK47 and MP5 machine gun!
We then travelled onto Saim Reap and saw the wonder of Ankor Wat. Now this place was built somewhere between the 9th and 12th century and would probably be considered an impressive feat now so its a pretty damned impressive place. However, 4 hours was enough temple touring and my stomach was in need of feeding as we had got up at 5 to watch the sun rise over the temple as this was supposed to be an impressive sight. Ive got to say though...my vote goes for a lay-in and a good breakfast!
From SR we headed out of Camdodia and towards BKK. However luckily we stopped in Pattaya for a few days which meant we found out about the trouble just before riding unknowingly straight into it as we were thinking about missin gout S.Thailand and Malaysia due to the monsoons and so would have gone straight to the airport!
Anyway, Pattaya is the armpit of Thailand as its the sex tourist centre! this means a lot of sex bars and fat westeners with little Thai girlfriends! I know, why did I want to leave?! Anyway we decided to drag ourselves away from heaven and went to a place called Ko Chang about 200Km East of BKK. And now we have found heaven! We've been here about a week and are still waiting for the trouble to clear at BKK but I have to say if I had to pick anywhere Ive visited to stop for a while...it would be here! What a spot of luck again!
Hope everyone is enjoying the rain, cold and financial crisis! Much love from Sunny Thailand where accommodation and food totals about 10 pounds a day!
So we crossed into Cambodia and got to a place called Krachie. Nnow this place was an absolute dump! What was probably once a nice city with a town plaza and market square had been completely wrecked by the Khmer Rouge regime and with the country being left as one of the poorest in SE Asia, and after having any intellectuals murdered about 30 years ago under this regime, its not likely to get much nicer in the forseable future!
Anyway, if this was Cambodia, it probably wasnt going to be the best part of the trip! Anyway, the next day we upped and left pretty early as we were taking the 'scenic' route which meant slow progress through mud! but with a lovely view of the Mekong River for most of it! Anyway about 50km through the 80km off road section and the inevitable happened...my bike started over heating! this meant even slower progress and its not as if we had much time to spare anyway!!! Anyway, as luck would have it my bike over heated (again) outside an old lady's hut so we stopped to let it cool down. Then the lady of the house came out and in her best charades told us not to go any further as the road became impassable and we should go back about 1Km and find a boat to take us across the river to the road the other side which was much better. Anyway, taking her advice we back tracked and found a bridge that crossed onto an island and then a 'boat!' to take us across the river for a bargain $5 for the both of us! This was a lovely river crossing and the road on the other side was 100% better so we actually made it to PP just before dark! I'd hate to think what would have happened if we hadn't met this lady...We'd probably still be on the road!
Anyway, PP was more gloom as the history of the Khmer Rouge regime is the grounding of most of the tourist attractions. These are namely S21 (the detention and torture camp for prisoners) and the killing fields (unsurprisingly called that due to the fact they are fields where they killed people! Like I said, the intellectual people of Cambodia were all slaughtered in the 70's so they havent got any marketing guru's to come up with catchy names!) The highlight however was going to an army artillery range and loosing of a clip from an AK47 and MP5 machine gun!
We then travelled onto Saim Reap and saw the wonder of Ankor Wat. Now this place was built somewhere between the 9th and 12th century and would probably be considered an impressive feat now so its a pretty damned impressive place. However, 4 hours was enough temple touring and my stomach was in need of feeding as we had got up at 5 to watch the sun rise over the temple as this was supposed to be an impressive sight. Ive got to say though...my vote goes for a lay-in and a good breakfast!
From SR we headed out of Camdodia and towards BKK. However luckily we stopped in Pattaya for a few days which meant we found out about the trouble just before riding unknowingly straight into it as we were thinking about missin gout S.Thailand and Malaysia due to the monsoons and so would have gone straight to the airport!
Anyway, Pattaya is the armpit of Thailand as its the sex tourist centre! this means a lot of sex bars and fat westeners with little Thai girlfriends! I know, why did I want to leave?! Anyway we decided to drag ourselves away from heaven and went to a place called Ko Chang about 200Km East of BKK. And now we have found heaven! We've been here about a week and are still waiting for the trouble to clear at BKK but I have to say if I had to pick anywhere Ive visited to stop for a while...it would be here! What a spot of luck again!
Hope everyone is enjoying the rain, cold and financial crisis! Much love from Sunny Thailand where accommodation and food totals about 10 pounds a day!
The End of Laos!
I didnt realise it had been so long!
Well from Paskan to the border crossing with Laos and Cambodia, it was all fairly unadventurous...normal roads and nothing out of the ordinary...except my bike actually behaved itself so that was a turn up for the books! We didnt have to stop to fill the radiator once in about 3 days! But then obviously the inevitable happened and my radiator sprung another leak! This meant the last 30km into town was interspersed with roadside stops to fill it up with water and having to knock on peoples doors to get them to open their restaurant to sell me some water!
anyway, we made it and spent two days in Savannahket while I took my radiator to a fridge mechanic (as they dont use water cooled systems for bikes here!) and got him to patch up the holes. However, they arent exactly delicate when fixing problems so with every hole he filled, he created two more!! After a day of welding and cutting sections out of my radiator (so it now only runs at 70% efficiency) I decided to tak it away from him and fix it myself! Now everyone who knows my mechanical skills will know that they guys would have to be pretty bad for me to think I can do a better job! Anyway,I did fix it and it lasted another 10 days!
The plus side of all this was meeting the guy who lived next to the mechanics who insisted on taking me for a guided tour of the city in his pick up. The highlights to him were the bridge that the Japanese built for the Laos people and the bridge that the Russians built for the Laos people! As you can imagine...this was a really interesting city!!! we also visited a temple under construction just to top off one of the most exciting days of the trip so far! (This is when I am hoping I didnt give this guy my blog site address!). I did however get chatting to a monk who was tiling part of the temple so managed to get to lay a tile in Savannahkets largest temple! WOW I hear you all scream!
The next two days were spent heading for the border as my visa was due to expire in 3 days! When we eventually got there, it was about as professional as you would imagine from a Laos-Cambodia border...three tin sheds down different roads for visas, customs and the actual border crossing! And as you would also imagine crossing the border varies in price according to your negotiating skills. We got away with a fairly standard $23 per person and $20 for the bikes! I think the bikes were a bit pricey but we did here stories of people actually fighting with the custom officials while negotiating prices! We decided to take the peaceful approach!
Anyway, we were in Cambodia and were waiting to see if all the rumors of having to be careful were true! The apprehension was unbearable!
Well from Paskan to the border crossing with Laos and Cambodia, it was all fairly unadventurous...normal roads and nothing out of the ordinary...except my bike actually behaved itself so that was a turn up for the books! We didnt have to stop to fill the radiator once in about 3 days! But then obviously the inevitable happened and my radiator sprung another leak! This meant the last 30km into town was interspersed with roadside stops to fill it up with water and having to knock on peoples doors to get them to open their restaurant to sell me some water!
anyway, we made it and spent two days in Savannahket while I took my radiator to a fridge mechanic (as they dont use water cooled systems for bikes here!) and got him to patch up the holes. However, they arent exactly delicate when fixing problems so with every hole he filled, he created two more!! After a day of welding and cutting sections out of my radiator (so it now only runs at 70% efficiency) I decided to tak it away from him and fix it myself! Now everyone who knows my mechanical skills will know that they guys would have to be pretty bad for me to think I can do a better job! Anyway,I did fix it and it lasted another 10 days!
The plus side of all this was meeting the guy who lived next to the mechanics who insisted on taking me for a guided tour of the city in his pick up. The highlights to him were the bridge that the Japanese built for the Laos people and the bridge that the Russians built for the Laos people! As you can imagine...this was a really interesting city!!! we also visited a temple under construction just to top off one of the most exciting days of the trip so far! (This is when I am hoping I didnt give this guy my blog site address!). I did however get chatting to a monk who was tiling part of the temple so managed to get to lay a tile in Savannahkets largest temple! WOW I hear you all scream!
The next two days were spent heading for the border as my visa was due to expire in 3 days! When we eventually got there, it was about as professional as you would imagine from a Laos-Cambodia border...three tin sheds down different roads for visas, customs and the actual border crossing! And as you would also imagine crossing the border varies in price according to your negotiating skills. We got away with a fairly standard $23 per person and $20 for the bikes! I think the bikes were a bit pricey but we did here stories of people actually fighting with the custom officials while negotiating prices! We decided to take the peaceful approach!
Anyway, we were in Cambodia and were waiting to see if all the rumors of having to be careful were true! The apprehension was unbearable!
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