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Published: January 20th 2006
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WARNING: If your name is Suyoko, you shouldn't read this blog. You know why.
Back in KL! It was a bit of a whirlwind trip getting from Phnom Penh to here, but we managed to cut it by spending one night in Siem Reap, a few days in Bangkok, and a couple days in the Cameron Highlands.
The bus trip back to Siem Reap from Phnom Penh was much nicer than that ear-splitting trip the other way. We managed to stay overnight at some anonymous guesthouse in Siem Reap (the place is filled with them) before catching a taxi to the Thai border. At $15 USD for both of us, the taxi was more comfy than a bus and faster along that awful stretch of road, even with four people packed in the back seat! Interestingly, we had seen a film in PP about all the mines and de-mining activity that was supposedly going on in Cambodia (it's one of the most mined countries in the world) near the Thai border, but we hadn't seen any sign of it until the taxi trip. At one point on the left side of the road there were "lanes" marked out in
Find the Sarah!
The rose garden was filled with wacky sculptures...look at the one in the middle! ribbon, while on the other side of the road a number of Cambodians with metal detectors were getting out of a truck.....meaning at least on one side of the road there was a minefield!!! Creepy.
The Thai border was a piece of cake, although it takes awhile since you must stand in line on both sides and walk about a hundred metres between the two customs posts (so who owns the hundred metres???). We quickly found ourselves a minibus and it filled up pretty fast so before we knew it, we were on our way to Bangkok! This sounds tedious but it's much easier and faster to travel around in Thailand than in Cambodia (or even Laos for that matter).
Back in Bangkok, we stayed back in the backpacking ghetto that is Kho San Road...it felt like old hat now, so we were just there for a couple of days while we took care of some administrative details (ie booking our next flight to India from KL and getting Sarah to the hospital).
Sarah had been complaining of a sore stomach for over a week, so when we hit Bangkok and it was still hurting (you'd be
surprised at how many pains just go away after a few days), we decided to get her to a hospital, confident that in a big international city like Bangkok we could find something satisfactory. We weren't disappointed! The hospital was more like a five-star hotel...there were greeters at the doorway, and marble decor everywhere.
Coming from Canada, we were definitely not used to the expediency of the whole process-- within 15 minutes, we were registered, sent to a specific "department", and they had taken Sarah's height, weight and blood pressure!!! And it seemed like there were more staff members than patients. The waiting room was comfy and huge, and reminded us of an airport.
Within a couple hours (during which time we decided to cruise the "mall area" with health food and magazine shop, and then head to the STARBUCKS for a cold drink) they had run a few tests and gave us the results, sent us to the cashier where we paid and picked up our prescription drug cocktail. All in all, despite the kind of hefty bill, we were singing the praises of a privatized hospital system....that is, until we passed several poor and sick people
Pouty Scorpion Face
Don't laugh...you'd pout too with a twitchy scorpion on YOUR chest. begging by the side of the road so they could raise enough money to go to the hospital. So maybe our Canadian system has a few kinks but we're still really proud of it, at least everyone can go to the doctor! Sarah has just finished her prescription drugs and feels 100% better, so we guess that what we thought was her "little friend" (read: parasite) has gone now.
So heading down from Bangkok the whole train trip to KL requires two overnight trains, so we thought we'd break it up a little by taking one overnighter from Bangkok to Butterworth, then a bus to the Cameron Highlands (Malaysia) for some fresh and cool air before getting back to KL. And cool air it was!!! As we rolled up into the highlands, it began to rain and we were SO HAPPY! In the whole SE Asian leg of our trip it had only rained once in KL, once in Chiang Mai, and once in Luang Prabang -- 3 times in two months.....we had begun to dream of those cold, rainy nights in Vancouver (Hey you from Vancouver, stop hitting your computer screen and swearing at it, this behaviour won't
help).....even as those Vancouverites were telling us of their near-record-breaking 26 straight days of rain this past month.
Malaysia in general now feels so much more like a western country than one that belongs in SE Asia---the infrastructure includes actual highways and people even follow road lanes and signs....and they have no tuk-tuks! We really miss our tuk-tuk rides. Malaysia is very green and beautiful and the Cameron Highlands are amazing to see, but the guesthouses are more expensive here than the other countries we've been. And interestingly, the place is filled with Indian families who own many of the guesthouses. We first said to ourselves "what a strange place to find a large Indian population" but then we remembered that the British had begun the tea plantations in this region and had controlled much of Malaysia for a long time. Ah, the British!
We resolved only to spend a couple of nights in the Cameron Highlands, using one day to take our guesthouse tour of the area. This turned out to be very entertaining but VERY structured. Our sweet little tour guide was extremely militant, and decreed that we would spend exactly 15 minutes at the temple,
40 minutes at the rose garden, 15 minutes at the strawberry farm/stand, and 30 minutes at the butterfly garden before hitting the tea plantation for a "relaxing factory tour and maybe a cuppa". Needless to say we were kept right on schedule.
Our favourite part of the tour was the butterfly garden, as much for the butterflies as for the host/guide there. The guy was nuts. He was from Nepal (but sang Bollywood showtunes to himself the whole time) and as we walked around the insect and reptile enclosures, he just HAD to take things out and put them on us. Nick especially loved it when the guide ducked into the scorpion pit, pulled one out by its tail and placed it on his chest, where the animal decided to twitch (and maybe was as nervous as Nick) a few times. The butterfly enclosure was much more peaceful (it's a lot easier to have butterflies on your chest, trust Nick).
Anyhow, back in KL, we've confirmed our Sunday flight to Delhi and are preparing for India. We do feel like we didn't give Malaysia enough of our time, but there is so much to see that's off the peninsula as well as on it, so it could probably be another separate trip.
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Jen and Muzz
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Minefields and Scorpions
Sounds like the fun continues, still envious, glad to hear Sarah's better and I'll bet that was Bumrungrad Hospital! Take care, thinking of you, keep the blogs coming, love Jen and Muzz