Seven Months In Asia ( Bombay- Bangkok- Siam Reap- Phnom Penh- Sihanoukville )

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The flight to bangkok was probably the most hilarious flight i have ever been on. so, we are standing at the counter, an english guy infront of us starts talking to us, he's funny, we continue talking, end up getting seperated, my sister and I are at the duty free area, walk around, take a seat, this english guy comes up to us with a bottle of vodka and is like " you wanna shot?".. we accept, he pours three large shots, we are all feeling a bit lightheaded, we walk through the security still holding our cups as he keeps pouring and even asking the security guards if they want a taste.. we enter the aeroplane, my sister and i have seats together and there is a nice indian man sitting in the one beside us, the english bloke shoves his boarding pass in the mans lap and says " oi.. fuck off.. this i my seat now..!" the man leaves without objection.. am embarrased as hell.... he asks for drinks, they refuse since they say its an internal flight first to delhi, then they serve alcohol on the outbound flight to bangkok, he goes mad and starts telling them he didn't fucking pay to go to delhi, they are all his fucking servants and he needs a drink.. a steward gives him three bottles of red wine.. within a minute hes drunk... when they do the safety demonstration he starts whistling at the stewardess saying she's a bird and if she wants some.. then when she demonstrates the seat belt he shouts at the top of his voice "who gives a fuck if we wear a seat belt, if we crash we're all gonna DIEEEE"... they tell him to calm down.. then she shows the oxygen masks and he shouts the same thing..."what the fuck is good with oxygen if we are all gonna die.".. people are wondering who the hell he is and he gets a stern warning from the steward to which he replies.." you are nothing but a servant with a suit.. i am your boss.. give me a gin and tonic..." and he gets one.... then he disappears for one hour, off in the back of the plane somewhere only to come back and offer us more vodka until there is nothing left in the bottle... funny as hell... wow.,...

anyway... we arrive safely in bangkok... get cab since its 1 in the morning and pull up to kenny's bar just as they are closing, rupert has made it, has found the place and is happy to see us, so we all go for a quick drink and then hit the hay.

upon waking up and guzzling a thai red bull we are ready to show rupert around the town, so we visit the royal palace, take a river taxi, see the reclining buddha, go to pratunum market, sukhumvit, khao san, chinatown, siam square, etc. then its off to cambodia for us, by land, so we headed to the bus station and booked ourselves tickets to the border, leaving the next day....

Overland to Siam Reap

Bangkok was left behind...now bus windows and dreams would be our company until we reached siam reap, sometime in the near future...hopefully. all we knew, when leaving, was that we could get visas on the border, organise transport to siam reap on the other side, and we were highly recommended to get to siam reap before nightfall.. no problem. we left bangkok early, the bus broke down after about 2 hours and we ended up standing at the side of the road, sweating to death, waiting for something to happen. another bus came along a couple of hours later, and we had to squeeze onto an already crowded bus, so we ended up standing or eventually finding seats as passengers got off..etc.

the bus pulled into the station, three hours late, we caught a tuk tuk to the border, a dodgy looking guy in a cap met us and started trying to sell us a truck ride to siam reap, we refused.. he hung on us like a leech the whole way through the passport control, visa office, etc.. we ignored him.. the process took all of 10 minutes and we were the proud owners of cambodian visas !!

meters from the border line i met two ozzies on their way into thailand. i asked them how much they had paid for their van ride, they said 10 dollars each and the man added "dont fucking bother with cambodia.. your best bet is to turn around and go back to thailand." thank god we did not listen to him.

the guy with the cap was still following us, annoying the heck out of all of us, so we tried to avoid him by going into a restaurant and getting a drink.. he followed us in.. we went out to start negotiations, a guy came with a pick up and told us we could get a ride for 10 dollars each, we said 5, he said ok and we jumped in.. then this prick with the cap walked over to him, whispered something and within ten seconds we were kicked out of the truck and told he wouldn't be going.. i was ready to smack this idiot, but we walked on.. basically he did the same thing to everyone we managed to get a good price with, so in the end we told him we were walking and left.. he followed us around 2 kms down the road before i did the completely un-buddhist thing and shouted at him...i told him to fuck off and go away... and he actually did... i had had enough.

moments later a guy in a toyota stopped and asked us if we wanted a ride to siam reap for 15dollars for the three of us. since it was already getting dark we jumped in, he was an immigration officer, we felt slightly safe. the roads in cambodia are the worst i have ever seen in my life, and he drove at 80 to 100 the whole time, banging about like heck, us all wondering how a small car can take such a throttling.. but we got to sisophon, pitch dark outside, all of us a little nervous, the driver got out, smoked a cigarette, fair enough, then another.. and another.. i got out to find out what was going on.. he said he was waiting to fit 6 more people in the car and then we would leave.. i told him if he didn't leave now he would not get any money from us (thank goodness we didn't pay upfront, so we had him by the balls), he refused to leave, we told him to get as many people as he wanted, but he told us it might take until morning to find that many people.. we were just tired from a long, dusty day, breakdowns, idiots in caps, delays and all the rest.... i objected, then a friend of his came over and said he would take us to siam reap for 20 dollars... we thought it over, told him this was 20, and not 15 for the first guy and then 20 for him, he said.. no only 20.. final price.. we agreed as it was already 8 o'clock and got into yet another car... he sped off.. after about one hour we got a flat tire, he got out to fix it, i stepped out to watch, he shoved me back in the car and said "stay down.. dangerous place.. dont come out".. we hid... it took about 1 hour since he had crap tools and a tiny flashlight. finally we were on the road again, one of the most nerve wrecking trips since the bridges there are basically two planks across a river ... and they look a thousand years old.. so we held our breath over every bridge and panicked whenever we went over a bump that could burst another tire, since we had no spare... slowly but surely (it took 5 hours in all) we arrived in siam reap.....found a hotel... there were some canadians sitting around who laughed at us cause we were all so dusty and came so late.... we ended up hanging out with them the next few days...so.. showers and beers were on !! what a day... what an introduction to a country... wow..but the morning always comes and makes everything look soooo good... so... we slept early.. to await the rejuvinating morning.

The Unimaginable Glory of Angkor

the first day in siam reap we spent walking to the small market, changing hotels to family guest house which was spotlessly clean, friendly and had excellent food, we checked out some email places and in the afternoon went to angkor to buy tickets for the next day. we headed straight for angkor wat, spend the rest of the afternoon there admiring one of the worlds most amazing temples, walking every inch of it, covering a good portion of the grounds around it also, but staying to the well trodden paths obviously. we then headed up to the hill where everyone went for sunset.. it was a pathetic waste of time.. there were hundreds of people up there and actual lines to take a photo.. we stayed a few minutes and decided to get a good nights rest so we could explore the whole day tomorrow...


up at 4:30 the motorbikes were waiting outside for us, we got the keys, paid the owners and rode off alone (nobody else seemed to do this? everyone thought they have to have guides on the bike..?) anyways.. we filled petrol and went straight to bayon. we arrived there when it was still dark, and the temple was eerie as anything with all the trees around and the huge pillars and faces... amazing.. we spent over an hour just walking around, sitting, taking photos, waiting for the sunrise, and it came.... slowly spilling over the trees, inch by inch beginning to illuminate the towers.. the faces.. the whole temple turning reddish gold from a deep blue/grey colour.. it was amazing.. and the best part was that since it was so early there were only 3 other people there to disturb the peace... amazing.


after bayon we headed straight to ta phrom, via ta keo, since that was the one temple we had most looked forward to seeing and wanted to get there early. it was a nice 10 minute ride on the bikes and when we got there we were relieved to see only one motorbike parked under a tree. the walkway to the temple is magical, walking through jungle with giant trees and roots twisting all over the place.. entering the temple is an experience.. it blows away any picture you have seen, any movie.. its just amazing.. inspiring and extremely intimidating.. just a plethora of stones, temples, broken walls and roots the size of normal trees bending and breaking into everything, and yet at the same time holding alot of it together.



the one motorbike belonged to an american who was quietly sitting in a corner drawing, so we basically had the best temple in the area to ourselves.. and we expored for ever... just walking around, taking numerous photos, and pinching ourselves to really see if this wasn't a dream.. thats the effect of sights like angkor, you really find yourself slipping into dreamworlds, its almost difficult to remember afterwards if you were there or it was all a mystical vision or something.. its that special and powerful....



with ta phrom behind us we went the other two temples in the direct vicinity before heading out for the further temples...stopping by banteay kdei, pre rup, ta som and the hardly visited banteay samre which was beautiful and deserted but with an amazing structure, a dried pool in the middle, and a strange platform outside facing jungle.. excellent place.. then we saw the rest of angkor, angkor thom, lepper terrace, elephant terrace, neak pean, prah khan, prasat prei, phimeanakas,etc.. and lots of smaller temples which we found by driving down suspicious looking country roads, and traipsing around in the forest... it was an amazing day, a complete sensory overload, left you feeling dizzy and unreal.. and we needed to head back to the hotel for a sleep after all those images, smells, evocations. it was truly a lifetime experience.. i would beg anyone who has not been to angkor to go......and drive on your own.. its more freeing and fun.. and you get to plan the day how you would...unreal.




angkor was one of the most amazing sights i have ever
seen in my life. no joke. this place was insanely
beautiful. temples scattered over a HUGE area, we
rented motorbikes and drove around, some of the sites
were up to 20 kilometers away from each other. the
temples were amazing, specially angkor wat at sunset,
bayon at sunrise, famous for all the faces sculpted
into the huge pillars, and then ta phrom which has
been left exactly as it was found, totally overgrown
and amazing.. with large roots from trees coming out
of the walls and stones laying scattered everywhere.
we chose to go at 5 in the morning and it was serene,
and only ONE other person was there to disturb our
little adventure. we then made rounds to alot of other
temples but these three WERE angkor to me. i still
feel that it was all some kind of hallucination
because the place is so strange and beautiful that you
feel you are imagining being there.. its very unreal.



anyway, cambodia is amazing, it has the sweetest
people i have ever encountered in asia i think, as of
yet hardly spoilt by tourism, so warm and hospitable.
the nature also is amazing, reminds me of china and
thailand, but still unique and all the houses standing
high on stilts makes it ever more excellent.



well, i better leave. i have to enjoy this day in
phnom penh, and make plans for tomorrow.. such a hard
life eh??



Phnom Penh)

it was time to leave the dreams of angkor behind and see some of the other sides of cambodia to find out if they complimented or clashed with the observations we had already made. we decided to take the bus to phnom penh, as opposed to the boat that cost 25 dollars, we paid 10 for the van and though we were smart at saving 15 dollars... eh.....

we were packed like sardines into the tiniest van i have ever seen, about 14 of us with all our backpacks piled in the middle so that you were trapped between a window and a pile of bags that kept falling. the road to pp is one of the 5 worst roads in cambodia.. hurrah.. and some of the time you couldn't honestly tell where the road ended and the fields began, or if it all was a field.. or a road.. anyways, i have been on 18 hour bus rides that were a pleasure to be on.. this one was hell.. it tested every ounce of patience i had in my body and i also needed to piss almost immediately but the driver didn't stop for 7 hours. finally he made a stop, we leapt for the bathroom and bought some snacks, etc.. ignoring the dried bats and rats that were hanging in the market place.. then back in the van... and another 4 hours of hell roads until we finally made it to pp at sunset.........

some travellers we had met in sr told us to stay at guest house number 10 on the lakeside, so as soon as the van parked, we jumped on three motos and all set off for the lakeside. what awaited us there was worth doing the same bus journey ten times.,. the guest house was cheap, clean, had amazing food, no mosquitos and best of all the restaurant was built out over the river on stilts and at the end were couches, hammocks, speakers with good music and lots of cold angkor beer.. wow.. this place was paradise.. they also had a vcd player and a whole host of brand new movies.. (we saw lord of the rings one week after it was released in the cinema.. on dvd).. so we spent more than our planned 2 days there... i think we ended up being there 5 or 6..

in the day we went to the palace which was impressive, the russian market which had excellent cds and computer software for a dollar, went to the central market, walked around the waterfront, spent hours talking to the canadians (the same ones from siam reap had come to pp also!!), so we hung out with them all day and drank with them all night.. it was a fantastic place.. absolutely.. one night stands out.. we decided to hit the "heart of darkness" bar which we had read about.. so we all aquired motos and drove down there.. it was an alright, 80's, red velvet kinda affair, but the beer was cheap and we all took a table and just chatted.. until a ladyboy came in, and started making moves on us, we let him down gently and he just kept moving around the room looking for suckers. anyway.. about 20 minutes after a lone german guy comes in.. looks around the room, finds a couch to sit on.. within ten seconds the lady boy is flirting with him.. we are all just dying in our beers trying not to laugh, wondering whether we should tell him or not.. and yes, minutes later they were making out like it was the last night on earth... ugh.. we laughed our asses of.. and pretty soon after left the bar cause the music was getting soooo loud.. so we headed back and bought some samsong whisky...which we finished by the lakeside...excellent.

it was then time to leave pp, and head down south to see what the beaches were like in sihanoukville. so tickets booked, bus boarded, cd players loaded we headed off.......


Sihanoukville (Weather Station Hill)

first of all, the bus made it about 30 minutes before there was a huge accident on the road involving a truck that had lost control and driven across the other side of the road and the cabin was in a ditch, with the cargo in the middle of the road and buildings on either side so it was impossible for even a motorbike to pass... wonderful.. we have not had the best luck with transport in cambodia...

it took them about 3 hours to fix, in the meantime rupert bought a coconut and poured a bottle of sangsom into it, so we had provisions, we spent the three hours sitting in a roadside cafe listening to karaoke and drinking red bull....after what seemed like forever the bus sounded its horn and we were off.. the nature was amazing.. all the way to sihanoukville.. so much beauty to look at.. and then the sun set and the rest was in darkness.... but i made it great to reflect on the past few days.

again, someone had told us that in sihanoukville we should stay at weather station hill, so we got motos there and booked ourselves into a nice hotel for 3 dollars a night. we spent three days in sihanoukville, rented motos, drove up and down the coast, drove on the beaches, fell in love with sokha beach, lying in the hammocks and buying grilled crayfish for one dollar, drinking angkor and chatting.. we went to all the beaches, the worst of them being ocheanthal which none of us liked. we then drove through town, found a small road constituting of rocks and sand, we drove on it for about 30 minutes, almost all of us falling off the bike more than once, arrived at a paradise beach with not a soul .. started driving really fast just at the waters edge, until at the last second (literally three meters from it) i spotted a rope at neck height tied to a palm tree, and a boat... running right across the beach... i shouted DUCK and luckily my sister heard me and we both dived down, the rope flew over us, i managed to control the bike and slammed on the brakes to tell rupert and jason and ken.. i waved my arms at them... rupert saw it and did the same, with hermie behind him diving to the left and rupert to the right.. they managed.. and then came ken and jason who JUST pushed under the rope, jason being more than 6 foot.. haha.. we all just stopped the bikes.. shaking a little and laughed about it. a few fishermen came out to see what the commotion was and walked back...

we drove a couple of hundred meters more and came to an amazing area where a river broke into the sea and was covered in reeds and plants.. it looked so beautiful we just stood there in silence for a few minutes.. then it was back on the bikes... avoiding the rope.. back on the sandy road and crazy bridges.. back to our hotel and to our favourite place to eat: romdols. the owner had amazing food, he chose our meals most nights and never guessed wrong, the beer was cold and cheap and he allowed us to put on whatever music we wanted... superb.

sihanoukville was yet another surprise, cambodia had absolutely charmed us.. we all loved it and almost didn't want to leave.. but it was time to head down to malaysia and indonesia to see something else and leave this behind to return to another time.. so we booked tickets on the ferry to thailand, delivered our bikes back, caught motos to the harbour and left.

the boat ride was fantastic, 4 hours on silver waters with islands dotting the whole area and beautiful beaches, we climbed on the roof along with a few others and spent the whole journey with the wind in our hair, tasting the salt air.



the boat stopped and we needed to get speed boats to the border to thailand, so we negotiated a price and the boat sped off like hell, skipping on the waves and shooting past houses built on stilts and kids playing with kites...as we approached the shore another boat came speeding towards us and actually crashed into our boat so that we nearly fell into the water along with our backpacks.. a guy jumped from that boat onto ours and smiled "you need taxi?".. we were stunned.. haha.. crazy... but thankfully an italian who had been travelling with us had a bottle of whisky in his backpack and we all sipped it to calm our nerves...
we made it to the border, crossed, caught a van to trat, which broke down after 15 minutes and left us at the side of the road for one hour waiting for another one.. we arrived in trat, checked into friendly guest house run by a fenchman, walked to the night market for some fantastic thai food... and back for a video and chang.. perfect end to an eventful day.

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