Dear all,
It is getting hotter and hotter, and this time we all are very annoyed because of it. Impossible to do to anything meaningful... but I have a lot of stories for you, so there we go:
Trijnie did a research for the spider, I do not know if you read the comment yourself with the previous report: it is a tarantula!! That sounds quite terrifying, and being a person taking out the vacuum cleaner if I see a 1 cm big spider, it is pretty courageous that I was eating it!! I asked Trijnie to find out how they remove the spider's teeth: does a specialised tarantula dentist exist?
Annette, I received your email and your comment via the weblog, so you did both right!
Then I communicated following info. via a private email to Toshiharu-san and Florence : "The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek I was talking about in a previous report have been recently privatised and is now controlled by a Japanese company. Part of the deal involved upgrading the road, which is now surfaced all the way, but many Khmers and foreign observers alike were deeply disturbed that a foreign company was permitted to exploit Cambodia's tragedy. "
Toshiharu-san likes to know what is meant with ''exploit Cambodia's tragedy". First of all, I was citing my guide book Lonely Planet. Secondly, I can imagine that it is surprising to observe that a foreign company is controlling a museum so deeply related to Cambodia's tragedy and that such should be rather controlled by the country itself (by a private company or by the Cambodian government). By no means it is a critics related to the relation between Japan and Cambodia. Personally, I think it is a good thing that the museum is exploited by a foreign country and one 'rich' as Japan is, in order to be sure, that the testimonies of this tragedy will be conserved. Such is not sure if it would have been maintained by the corrupt government, in which still former Khmer Rouge members are present.
19-11-08
Last morning in Phnom Penh. At breakfast we were seated at the same table as a Canadian investigator appointed by the UN (United Nations), who just flew in the day before to cooperate with the Khmer Rouge tribunal hearings which are finally starting. Pretty sure that he will not have enough time in this year to finish all of it...
Around lunch time we were seated next to a Dutch man, former professional soldier, and since his retirement 10 years ago working as a consultant in Cambodia. This time he was accompanying a team of the German army involved with the classification and storage of 'safe' weapons of the Cambodian army and the destruction of the 'wrong' ones, i.e. the dangerous ones.
I was surprised to notice that the German government is still supporting the Cambodian government, since I understood that for instance the Belgian and the Dutch government withdraw themselves since the constitution of the democracy in Cambodia is too slow and the government is doing too little about the corruption. The Dutch consultant answered me, that the reason is different: apparently the person responsible in the Netherlands seriously disliked his counter-party in Cambodia and decided to close the funding-tap!
Well, the truth will be somewhere in the middle!
One thing is sure: there are numberless NGO (Non Governmental Organisations) in Cambodia and especially in Phnom Penh. Another personal observation: lot of health clinics and other projects supported by NGO's look like deserted... pretty sad to see.
Another observation: lots of the land cruisers cruising around in Cambodia are made by Lexus, Japanese car producer!
Anyway, after our breakfast, the 4 of us went to the Special Market, Psar Thmei, in Phnom Penh. The huge domed hall resembles a Babylonian ziggurat and some claim it ranks as one of the largest domes in the world. There again interesting exhibitions of all kind of meats, interesting to see that early in the morning ...
Unfortunately it was here that one of our group members has been stolen that same morning from her camera by a passing motor rider. As our Dutch guide said, it happens once at all his trips in Phnom Penh. The saddest thing for her was that she lost 900 pictures, well, if that is the saddest, then it is pretty OK ... She told that she had alike experiences in Rio de Janeiro (threatened with a knife) and Columbia (foolished by false police men). So anyone thinking that travelling is fun !!!
From this market we started a walk through the centre of Phnom Penh, which we liked a lot, because it allowed us to see and taste other parts of it than only the touristy highlights.
We passed again by the Royal Palace, the sun was shining this time and then it looks different, beautiful. Interesting to mention is that the Silver Pagoda, part of the Royal Palace, was preserved by the Khmer Rouge to demonstrate its concerns for the conservation of Cambodia's cultural riches to the outside world. Although more than half of the pagoda's contents were destroyed under Pol Pot, what remains is spectacular. This is one of the few places in Cambodia where bejewelled objects embodying some of the brilliance and richness of Khmer civilisation can still be seen.
We also made a stop at Hotel Le Royal. From the golden age of travel, this classical colonial-era hotel is one of Asia's grand old palaces, in the illustrious company of the Oriental in Bangkok and Raffles in Singapore (which I visited in approx. 1997 just for having a drink). Between 1970 and 1975 many famous journalists working in Phnom Penh stayed here, and part of the film 'The Killing Fields' was set in the hotel (though filmed in Hua Hin, Thailand).
We enjoyed here the best cake ever we had since our stay in Cambodia: delicious!
Worth and sad to mention: the railway station: nowadays there are no passengers services at all anymore in Cambodia, only merchandise transport. Very odd to visit such a deserted railway station.
At 1.30 p.m. we all left Phnom Penh heading for Kep.
The woman stolen from her camera managed, without giving any bribery to the police, after 3 attempts at different police stations to report the theft of her camera, necessary to claim the loss from her insurance.
20-11-08
Kep is a seaside resort and was founded as a colonial retreat for the French elite in 1908. The Khmer Rouge were known to harbour a particular hatred for the town and the destruction they wrought was nearly total. Today, dozens of Kep's luxurious pre-war villas are still just blackened shells, poignant reminders of the long years of Khmer Rouge rule and civil war. Inhabited by squatters, the mansions - remnants of a once-great (or at least rich and flashy) civilisation that met a sudden and violent end - have a post-apocalyptic feel.
Besides of that, in general I dislike seaside resorts and especially when I am travelling: I am not sitting 10 hours in an airplane to sit down on a beach. Anyway, do not imagine a seaside resort like Saint Tropez, after all we are in Cambodia, so the place unfortunately was quite run down. Our hotel was pretty OK, but the efficiency of its staff was - let me resume - memorable.
We arrived after the sunset, so no time to explore the village (big word for it..). We decided to have dinner at the hotel. Kep being famous for its splendid seafood, we all ordered crab, but also that was a deception.
Next morning, courageous as we were, the 4 of us went off for a walk in the Kep National Park, without a guide. The area is fully demined, so no danger. In the contrary, on the other side of the mountain there are still many mines, so impossible to hike their on your own. It was hot, hotter, hottest, incredible. Anyway, on the top of the only 154 mtr high hill we met 3 nuns living their on a pretty isolated place who kindly invited us in their best Cambodian (impossible to communicate, but with some smiles you come a long way) to visit their simple Wat (= temple) and enjoy some delicious fruits, which we have never eaten before. No idea what it was; it had the shape and the structure of an avocado, but the skin and content was bright orange, and containing 1 big and 1 little nut. Anybody any idea??
One of the nuns invited Sandra and myself - no entrance for the 2 men! - to admire the pictures inside their squat and we understood that the pictures were taken during their visits to Japan, Tibet, Taiwan,.... but we had difficulties to believe that these 3 poor-looking women were visiting all these countries. Well, that is certainly due to the lack of language comprehension!
Surprising to see all those indeed stripped off villas on our way. After some false starts, Kep finally seems to be rising from (or among) the ruins. According to the Lonely Planet, it's getting popular again, especially on weekends and holidays, with the wealthy elite of Phnom Penh. For me it is difficult to imagine, that even if you are driving a SUV, you are willing to drive for 4 hours over bad roads to go to such a basic place with nowadays not so nice beaches.
We came back at our hotel around 3 p.m., exhausted and so hot, so hot.... But refusing to hang around at the resort, Hans & I continued (flat) walking to the Crab Market, a row of wooden waterfront shacks. We made a reservation at a restaurant, highly recommended by the Lonely Planet, and there we were eating a delicious squid (Thai) Tom Yam soup and some steamed vegetables.
Just before we were arguing for about an hour with the hotel about our bill ....
Slowly but surely we are both eating meat and fish, and so far so good, no serious tummy problems. Apparently today (21-11-08) just one of us out of the 15 would have some minor problems, so such is pretty good.
21-11-08
Off again to another beach resort - yes, these days are definitely not my lucky days ... - at Sihanoukville, the closest thing you get to Costa del Cambodia. For the time being the city and its sandy beaches remain pretty laid-back.
And here again, it is hot, hotter, hottest. We were planning to get out tomorrow for another hike in another National Park but if the weather is staying like this I am afraid, that we will remain the full day in the swimming pool, varied by a massage and some delicious pastries we have already found this afternoon.
Right now I am sitting in a simple friendly Internet café just in front of our nearby 4-star (Cambodia's stars..) hotel, where the Internet connection is not working right now, and unknown when the service will be resumed: welcome to Cambodia! At least it has a swimming pool, so Arjan is very happy! It seems to have a TV with some foreign channels like BBC, so maybe I can see what is happening in the world, first time so far!
Enjoy all your weekend; I may come back to you tomorrow since I am foreseeing that I will be very soon bored at this beach resort ...
A&I - 21-11-08 - Sihanoukville, sun-is-down; possible-again-to-breath!
Friday, 21 November 2008
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
17/18-11-08
bericht voor Trijnie: probeer niet eens te begrijpen waarom ik dat soort onzinnige vragen stel, maar ik heb inmiddels uit betrouwbare Vlaamse bron begrepen, dat het een fabeltje is, dat Belgen nog steeds waterkonijn in restaurants eten.
En wat die andere vraag betreft: daar gaat het ook goed mee!
Dear all,
Finally a normally working, having a normal keyboard and very cheap (0,5 $ / hour) Internet connection, inside and one just opposite our hotel! And I can see again! I changed one of my contact lenses 2 days before departure and my eye-doctor was right when he warned me, that I would have difficulties with reading, which turned out to be very true 1000s kilometres from home ... So tonight I got within 1/2 hour a pair of good reading glasses incl. solid box for only $ 42.
I continue with yesterday 17-11-08 morning. Very disciplined we left 10 minutes before official departure time. Our group turns out to be the more and more weird, no homogeinity at all, but it does not bother us at all. We form our own group of 4 often accompanied the evening for dinner by the Dutch guide.
Long drive on not so good road from Kratie to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. Some stops on the way for drinks and lunch, and also because of a technical problem with the bus, which fortunately was fixed very quickly. The stops are always interesting, lots of things to see (people, seriously overloaded cars, rice fields, ...), friendly people, not pushy at all and often ready to be taken for a photograph.
Interesting stop at spiderville Skuon, where huge deep-fried spiders are offered for a snack. We both tried a leg, it tasted quite nice, but when I tasted the hairs of the leg, I had to spit it out .... Our local Cambodian guide ate it all, incl. the body, aaarhhh... And believe it or not, after being caught, they got their teeth getting out in order avoiding from being bitten ... No idea what the name of this species is, maybe a nice question for Lilian!?
Around 5 p.m. we arrived at Phnom Penh. The name of this city has definitely a magic name for me. I was a teenager during the Khmer Rouge horrors, and I remember the news stories about it, but it was for me in a far away Asian country and here I am, 30 years after the end of the Pol Pot regime, in the city where it all started on 17 April 1975. Because of heavy traffic, and even traffic jams inside the city, we arrived slowly and we gradually noticed the change of the country side into modern buildings, still often varied by wooden simple, very simple, houses. Such also in the city centre, with dirty, very dirty streets.
After having checked in in our hotel, we went off by tuk-tuk (4 wheels moped taxi) to an Indonesian restaurant: having 3 Dutch in our group not living in the Netherlands, we were dying for some sateh with "pinda"-sauce... What a deception: it was closed! Next to is the FCC, the Foreign Correspondents' Club, famous beyond the borders of Cambodia, where we enjoyed a - for Cambodian level - expensive diner with my first wine and dessert during this trip.
We were seriously warned for bag snatchers and pickpockets, so we left our belongings in the hotel safe and stayed closely together while returning home. Armed robberies do occur in Phnom Penh, but are rare and I reckon that by taking the same precautions as in Paris or in Amsterdam, things are not that worse. The only serious problem is, is that the police is not protecting tourists, so it is better to avoid any problems ....
18-11-08
The 4 of us we organised a long day. We hired for $ 25 a tuk-tuk for the full day, who picked us up at 7.15 a.m. to get to the Royal Palace (still used by the King and his wife; those private parts are not open to public). That was a little too early so our tuk-tuk driver, Mr Ba (or something like that ..) brought us to a wonderful coffee place, finally my first serious espresso! Cambodian coffee is quite terrible to drink.
We tried again at 8 a.m. and this time the gates of the palace were open (official opening hours are not always respected). Unfortunately it was a raining a bit and later on even more serious (and today we have been told, that a serious storm zone is approaching us from Thailand) so the yellow, red, orange colours of the roofs of the buildings of the Royal Palace were not that vivid. This palace is compared with the Bangkok's one, but we reckon that the latter is much more interesting with much more variety. It can be that the grey weather influenced our appreciation. Absolutely highlight is the Silver Pagoda, with 5000 silver tiles weighing 1 kg each; the life seize gold Buddha weighing 90 kg decorated with thousands of diamonds and the Emerald Buddha, believed to be made of Baccarat crystal. The latter we do not understand, because for us Emerald is not the same at all as crystal. Lilian, another search for you?!
Beautiful Throne Hall as well, still used for instance for ceremonies as the presentation of credentials by diplomats.
Having read a lot before our departure to Cambodia about the Khmer Rouge horrors, we of course had to visit the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. I am sure that some of you saw the impressive film " The Killing Fields" showing in a very good way the incredible happenings of that era. We hired a guide during our tour of this museum or rather just a field with some holes of the excavated mass graves - because of a lack of money, 43 out of 129 communal graves have been left untouched - and a glass Memorial Stupa showing the skulls of more than 8000 victims. Fragments of human bones and bits of cloth are scattered around the disinterred pits. It is a peaceful place today, masking the horrors that unfolded here less than 3 decades ago.
After this rather emotional visit, frankly commented by our guide, who was too young having lived itself this period, we needed a break, so we went to a nice restaurant for a good lunch.
The restaurant was just in front of the Tuol Sleng Museum, the formerly High School taken over by Pol Pot's security forces in 1975 to be turned into a prison known as Security Prison 21 (S-21). This soon became the largest centre of detention and torture in the country: 17.000 people held at S-21 were taken to the killing fields of Choeung Ek. Altogether, a visit to Tuol Sleng is a profoundly depressing experience. The sheer ordinariness of the place makes it even more horrific: the suburban setting, the plain school buildings, the grassy playing area where children kick around balls; rusty beds, instruments of torture and wall after wall of disturbing portraits of tortured victims conjure up images of humanity at its worst. It demonstrates the darkest side of the human spirit that lurks within us all.
We also watched a powerful documentary made by amongst others the French TV channel FR3 about the true story of a beautiful woman and a regional Khmer Rouge leader, who are made to pay for their love story considered as a crime with imprisonment and execution at S-21 prison.
Oef, that was tough.... and what I got out of it as being the worst thing that even nowadays still exists the distrust among the Cambodian population. As maybe said before the today's Prime Minister Hun-Sen is a former Khmer Rouge soldier and corruption is overwhelming. However people are not ready for a change, out of ignorance - people on the country side hardly receive any proper education - but also out of fear : maybe the next leader is even worse than Pol Pot!
We ended the day with a visit to Phnom Penhs boulevard Sisowath, interesting, but not really after all we have seen today....
Dinner tonight right at the corner of our hotel. I left Arjan and the other 3 right after this dinner to write this blog but before I had a talk of over an hour with 2 taxi drivers waiting for our hotel and speaking extremely well English, and one of them even French. I was surprised that both are not having a better job. Well the reason of that is very simple: corruption! If you do not have the right connections, you will not have the right job.
One of them told that he witnessed this afternoon a car accident, caused by a big car - number-plated RCAF Royal Cambodian Air Force - to a simple bicycle; the car did not even stop, because nobody will bother the RCAF ... One of them was very pessimistic about their near future, the other more optimistic, but I do not see how things may change in the right direction as long as the present political leaders remain in power.
For a poor country as Cambodia, the number of huge - in Europe very - expensive cars is impressive and one should not wonder where the owners get the money from.
OK enough serious considerations, time to get some sleep. Tomorrow morning we are planning a visit to the Central Market and a Lonely Planet walk in Phnom Penh, before heading off to our next destination!
A (I am afraid that he is already sleeping right now) & I - Phnom Penh, 18-11-08 - hot
En wat die andere vraag betreft: daar gaat het ook goed mee!
Dear all,
Finally a normally working, having a normal keyboard and very cheap (0,5 $ / hour) Internet connection, inside and one just opposite our hotel! And I can see again! I changed one of my contact lenses 2 days before departure and my eye-doctor was right when he warned me, that I would have difficulties with reading, which turned out to be very true 1000s kilometres from home ... So tonight I got within 1/2 hour a pair of good reading glasses incl. solid box for only $ 42.
I continue with yesterday 17-11-08 morning. Very disciplined we left 10 minutes before official departure time. Our group turns out to be the more and more weird, no homogeinity at all, but it does not bother us at all. We form our own group of 4 often accompanied the evening for dinner by the Dutch guide.
Long drive on not so good road from Kratie to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. Some stops on the way for drinks and lunch, and also because of a technical problem with the bus, which fortunately was fixed very quickly. The stops are always interesting, lots of things to see (people, seriously overloaded cars, rice fields, ...), friendly people, not pushy at all and often ready to be taken for a photograph.
Interesting stop at spiderville Skuon, where huge deep-fried spiders are offered for a snack. We both tried a leg, it tasted quite nice, but when I tasted the hairs of the leg, I had to spit it out .... Our local Cambodian guide ate it all, incl. the body, aaarhhh... And believe it or not, after being caught, they got their teeth getting out in order avoiding from being bitten ... No idea what the name of this species is, maybe a nice question for Lilian!?
Around 5 p.m. we arrived at Phnom Penh. The name of this city has definitely a magic name for me. I was a teenager during the Khmer Rouge horrors, and I remember the news stories about it, but it was for me in a far away Asian country and here I am, 30 years after the end of the Pol Pot regime, in the city where it all started on 17 April 1975. Because of heavy traffic, and even traffic jams inside the city, we arrived slowly and we gradually noticed the change of the country side into modern buildings, still often varied by wooden simple, very simple, houses. Such also in the city centre, with dirty, very dirty streets.
After having checked in in our hotel, we went off by tuk-tuk (4 wheels moped taxi) to an Indonesian restaurant: having 3 Dutch in our group not living in the Netherlands, we were dying for some sateh with "pinda"-sauce... What a deception: it was closed! Next to is the FCC, the Foreign Correspondents' Club, famous beyond the borders of Cambodia, where we enjoyed a - for Cambodian level - expensive diner with my first wine and dessert during this trip.
We were seriously warned for bag snatchers and pickpockets, so we left our belongings in the hotel safe and stayed closely together while returning home. Armed robberies do occur in Phnom Penh, but are rare and I reckon that by taking the same precautions as in Paris or in Amsterdam, things are not that worse. The only serious problem is, is that the police is not protecting tourists, so it is better to avoid any problems ....
18-11-08
The 4 of us we organised a long day. We hired for $ 25 a tuk-tuk for the full day, who picked us up at 7.15 a.m. to get to the Royal Palace (still used by the King and his wife; those private parts are not open to public). That was a little too early so our tuk-tuk driver, Mr Ba (or something like that ..) brought us to a wonderful coffee place, finally my first serious espresso! Cambodian coffee is quite terrible to drink.
We tried again at 8 a.m. and this time the gates of the palace were open (official opening hours are not always respected). Unfortunately it was a raining a bit and later on even more serious (and today we have been told, that a serious storm zone is approaching us from Thailand) so the yellow, red, orange colours of the roofs of the buildings of the Royal Palace were not that vivid. This palace is compared with the Bangkok's one, but we reckon that the latter is much more interesting with much more variety. It can be that the grey weather influenced our appreciation. Absolutely highlight is the Silver Pagoda, with 5000 silver tiles weighing 1 kg each; the life seize gold Buddha weighing 90 kg decorated with thousands of diamonds and the Emerald Buddha, believed to be made of Baccarat crystal. The latter we do not understand, because for us Emerald is not the same at all as crystal. Lilian, another search for you?!
Beautiful Throne Hall as well, still used for instance for ceremonies as the presentation of credentials by diplomats.
Having read a lot before our departure to Cambodia about the Khmer Rouge horrors, we of course had to visit the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. I am sure that some of you saw the impressive film " The Killing Fields" showing in a very good way the incredible happenings of that era. We hired a guide during our tour of this museum or rather just a field with some holes of the excavated mass graves - because of a lack of money, 43 out of 129 communal graves have been left untouched - and a glass Memorial Stupa showing the skulls of more than 8000 victims. Fragments of human bones and bits of cloth are scattered around the disinterred pits. It is a peaceful place today, masking the horrors that unfolded here less than 3 decades ago.
After this rather emotional visit, frankly commented by our guide, who was too young having lived itself this period, we needed a break, so we went to a nice restaurant for a good lunch.
The restaurant was just in front of the Tuol Sleng Museum, the formerly High School taken over by Pol Pot's security forces in 1975 to be turned into a prison known as Security Prison 21 (S-21). This soon became the largest centre of detention and torture in the country: 17.000 people held at S-21 were taken to the killing fields of Choeung Ek. Altogether, a visit to Tuol Sleng is a profoundly depressing experience. The sheer ordinariness of the place makes it even more horrific: the suburban setting, the plain school buildings, the grassy playing area where children kick around balls; rusty beds, instruments of torture and wall after wall of disturbing portraits of tortured victims conjure up images of humanity at its worst. It demonstrates the darkest side of the human spirit that lurks within us all.
We also watched a powerful documentary made by amongst others the French TV channel FR3 about the true story of a beautiful woman and a regional Khmer Rouge leader, who are made to pay for their love story considered as a crime with imprisonment and execution at S-21 prison.
Oef, that was tough.... and what I got out of it as being the worst thing that even nowadays still exists the distrust among the Cambodian population. As maybe said before the today's Prime Minister Hun-Sen is a former Khmer Rouge soldier and corruption is overwhelming. However people are not ready for a change, out of ignorance - people on the country side hardly receive any proper education - but also out of fear : maybe the next leader is even worse than Pol Pot!
We ended the day with a visit to Phnom Penhs boulevard Sisowath, interesting, but not really after all we have seen today....
Dinner tonight right at the corner of our hotel. I left Arjan and the other 3 right after this dinner to write this blog but before I had a talk of over an hour with 2 taxi drivers waiting for our hotel and speaking extremely well English, and one of them even French. I was surprised that both are not having a better job. Well the reason of that is very simple: corruption! If you do not have the right connections, you will not have the right job.
One of them told that he witnessed this afternoon a car accident, caused by a big car - number-plated RCAF Royal Cambodian Air Force - to a simple bicycle; the car did not even stop, because nobody will bother the RCAF ... One of them was very pessimistic about their near future, the other more optimistic, but I do not see how things may change in the right direction as long as the present political leaders remain in power.
For a poor country as Cambodia, the number of huge - in Europe very - expensive cars is impressive and one should not wonder where the owners get the money from.
OK enough serious considerations, time to get some sleep. Tomorrow morning we are planning a visit to the Central Market and a Lonely Planet walk in Phnom Penh, before heading off to our next destination!
A (I am afraid that he is already sleeping right now) & I - Phnom Penh, 18-11-08 - hot
Sunday, 16 November 2008
Kratie 16-11-08
Dear all,
Another hot day, though I am getting used to it. After the 4 comfortable trips to Japan and Australia I was afraid that I could not stand any longer the heat and humidity of Asian countries, but I still manage to accept it. And though Cambodia is most probably the poorest country I ever visited, I appreciate the kindness of the people. As our Vietnamese guide told us yesterday (that was already in Cambodia): the people in Vietnam - doing economically quite well lately - are not smiling anymore; whereas the people in Cambodia are poor, but smiling. He has no intention at all to return to Vietnam.
Things in Cambodia are getting better, very, very slowly. Still a lot of corruption , bribery, intimidation by the political leaders. Though Internet is extremely slow (256 KB), it is available.
I was afraid for the dusty dirt roads because of my contact lenses, but though there are many of them, which we use as well with our bus, I did pretty well so far. And so far only 2 nights without electricity is not so bad. The place I am sitting right now - Internet café annex restaurant for Western tourists - is full of insects, but so far in our rooms we found - and killed! - only a few cockroaches (not sure about the spelling: cafards in French; kakkerlakken in Dutch) .
Today a morning off. We went with the 4 of us - often we spending our 'free' time with 2 singles of our age sometimes accompanied by our Dutch tour guide ; with the other 10 co-travellers we have hardly anything in common - to the island Koh Trong opposite our hotel with a - of course - simple ferry. We made a walk on our pace, took a lot of pictures of children, longhouses, rice fields and a ... marriage! Guests from Phnom Penh came over, high educated, thus speaking English and French, and they kindly invited us to have a talk with the bride & broom. What a contrast: those well-to-do Cambodian people in the environment of this very basic island. We have been invited tonight for the party on our side, but Arjan is certainly not going to eat the meat, he saw it being prepared, not that hygienic..
On the same island was a Vietnamese floating village: simple wooden houses floating in the river. Unimaginable how people can live under such circumstances.
This afternoon we went all of us for an excursion with a boat to watch the endangered Irrawaddy dolphins and lucky us: we have seen them! Nice boat trip with lots of fishermen. On the way back we made a stop at one of the numberless temples, where a service was going on by the local rowing organisation, who just won a championship. The long rowing boat was brought in to the temple and the sportsmen were singing and making (simple) music. A monk was leading the service. Lots of monks everywhere, but for me - Ingrid - not always possible to communicate - if they speak English - since they are not supposed to approach women. Happily the interpretation of such is pretty large!
Nice sunset over the Mekong river tonight.
Tonight diner at the same place as yesterday, there is hardly anything else acceptable for our Western stomachs. But good - and cheap - food, so such is OK to us. The service is slow, and the meals are coming one by one: I was served first and finished already before the last one was served: Cambodian - like many other Asian countries - do not understand that we order each a meal for ourselves and want to pay for ourselves: often Asian share all the meals in between them and split the bill in equal parts..
Tomorrow off to Phnom Penh, with lots of other adventures!
A&I - Kratie, 16-11-08 - hot
Another hot day, though I am getting used to it. After the 4 comfortable trips to Japan and Australia I was afraid that I could not stand any longer the heat and humidity of Asian countries, but I still manage to accept it. And though Cambodia is most probably the poorest country I ever visited, I appreciate the kindness of the people. As our Vietnamese guide told us yesterday (that was already in Cambodia): the people in Vietnam - doing economically quite well lately - are not smiling anymore; whereas the people in Cambodia are poor, but smiling. He has no intention at all to return to Vietnam.
Things in Cambodia are getting better, very, very slowly. Still a lot of corruption , bribery, intimidation by the political leaders. Though Internet is extremely slow (256 KB), it is available.
I was afraid for the dusty dirt roads because of my contact lenses, but though there are many of them, which we use as well with our bus, I did pretty well so far. And so far only 2 nights without electricity is not so bad. The place I am sitting right now - Internet café annex restaurant for Western tourists - is full of insects, but so far in our rooms we found - and killed! - only a few cockroaches (not sure about the spelling: cafards in French; kakkerlakken in Dutch) .
Today a morning off. We went with the 4 of us - often we spending our 'free' time with 2 singles of our age sometimes accompanied by our Dutch tour guide ; with the other 10 co-travellers we have hardly anything in common - to the island Koh Trong opposite our hotel with a - of course - simple ferry. We made a walk on our pace, took a lot of pictures of children, longhouses, rice fields and a ... marriage! Guests from Phnom Penh came over, high educated, thus speaking English and French, and they kindly invited us to have a talk with the bride & broom. What a contrast: those well-to-do Cambodian people in the environment of this very basic island. We have been invited tonight for the party on our side, but Arjan is certainly not going to eat the meat, he saw it being prepared, not that hygienic..
On the same island was a Vietnamese floating village: simple wooden houses floating in the river. Unimaginable how people can live under such circumstances.
This afternoon we went all of us for an excursion with a boat to watch the endangered Irrawaddy dolphins and lucky us: we have seen them! Nice boat trip with lots of fishermen. On the way back we made a stop at one of the numberless temples, where a service was going on by the local rowing organisation, who just won a championship. The long rowing boat was brought in to the temple and the sportsmen were singing and making (simple) music. A monk was leading the service. Lots of monks everywhere, but for me - Ingrid - not always possible to communicate - if they speak English - since they are not supposed to approach women. Happily the interpretation of such is pretty large!
Nice sunset over the Mekong river tonight.
Tonight diner at the same place as yesterday, there is hardly anything else acceptable for our Western stomachs. But good - and cheap - food, so such is OK to us. The service is slow, and the meals are coming one by one: I was served first and finished already before the last one was served: Cambodian - like many other Asian countries - do not understand that we order each a meal for ourselves and want to pay for ourselves: often Asian share all the meals in between them and split the bill in equal parts..
Tomorrow off to Phnom Penh, with lots of other adventures!
A&I - Kratie, 16-11-08 - hot
Saturday, 15 November 2008
13/14/15-11-08
Hi all,
I am sitting with a torch in my mouth in a sticky Cambodian city with extremely slow working Internet connection, welcome to Cambodia!
13-11-08
With the ferry we left Khong Island for a transfer day. First stop at Khon Phaphang (water) Falls, Laos' widest in the Mekong river.
We continued to the Laotian-Cambodian border. We already had our visa and with a $ 1 bribery each, the formalities went quickly.
Good lunch stop at a wood-smugglers hangout on the way : our local guide told us that the locals illegally cut wood and in order to escape the police they are ready to kill people standing in their way if they drive with their speeded-up car. Such a car was parked next to the restaurant ....
The road conditions are getting less: the infrastructure in Cambodia - one of the poorest countries in the world - is bad. Sometimes we crossed bridges with big holes in it; if the driver is not paying attention to it ... anyway, our driver is very careful, so not a single moment we were afraid.
We stayed for 2 nights in an eco-lodge 6 kilometres from the small village Banlung: electricity only from 6 pm to 9 pm; plus limited solar energy; unfortunately not working anymore the 2nd night. No hot water and not so clean bedsheets.. Banlung is in North-East Cambodia, not so touristy. Excellent dinner in the village.
14-11-08
Beautiful weather again, not humid. With 8 of us and a local guide we went out for the day to visit some ethnic minorities: Kreung, Tompuon and a Chinese settlement. We drove with 2 land cruisers, compulsory for this time even more terrible road conditions; roads with big holes, mud, etc. Unimaginable how to drive here during the rain season.
With a small boat - happy that we did not fell in the water - we crossed the Sesan-river to go to Vengsai. Interesting to visit the cemetery of the Tompuon animists (they believe in spirits); so no Buddhists; they bury their deaths. After fix periods they organise a memorial service with music, mourning and food. We were invited to assist to one of these (very informal) services. They also decorate the tombs with wooden sculptures often representing human beings.
Simple lunch on an island in the river with chop sticks made on the spot from bamboo shoots.
Surprising to see that the Chinese settlement was much tidier than the Laos villages: like in lot of other places in the world, the Chinese people are in charge of the business.
With 4 of us we managed to organise a taxi at the eco-lodge, i.e. the manager authorised his staff to use his car to drive us to the village to enjoy our best dinner ever (of these holidays) for $ 17 for the 2 of us. In Cambodia we pay everything in $ and if any change in $ is available one gets his change in $; if not you get your chance in riel = the local currency : 4.000 riel = 1 $.
15-11-08
We were supposed to stay another night in the eco-lodge and to walk around today. However, since it rained yesterday evening, walking would be very tough, so we all decided to shorten our stay with one day and to leave 1 day earlier for Kratie. To get there we partly had to take the same road of 2 days ago. Lunch stop in another unknown place, but fried rice or noodles with vegetables is always acceptable.
Arjan & I started eating pork, chicken, beef and fish; but such stays an adventure in these countries. We visited this morning the local market of Banlung and we decided definitely not to eat any snail: they were laying down in the full sun.. No further details about the conservation and treatment of fish and meat; let me resume it by saying that it is colourful...... So far, so good, everybody in the group is doing fine.
Our Dutch guide however was invited yesterday morning by the boss & his family of our Banlung guides and enjoyed a local breakfast. Well he did not enjoy it at all: though he is used to the local food, he said that it was uneatable: the leftovers of the good parts of any animal; stuff like that. I saw our local guides eating beef stomach for lunch, interesting, but not for us!
We arrived in Kratie around 4.15 pm, so some time left to explore the city by foot (sunset at 5.30 pm). There is supposed to be a rich legacy of French-era architecture in the (Mekong) riverside town counting 79.000 inhabitants, but we qualified it as being very sad: run out houses, bad streets, muddy, poor looking.....
Our hotel seems to be OK and this time we really appreciate such after 2 days in the 'jungle' without electricity.. It is humid here, we are now sitting in a bar with our Dutch guide and 2 fellow travellers. I hope they made a restaurant choice: I am ready for some nice food!
A&I - 15-11-08 - Kratie, sticky & humid
(Trijnie: geen eten of drank; maar wel een andere lokale verrassing. Het ziet er goed uit; advies opgevolgd!)
I am sitting with a torch in my mouth in a sticky Cambodian city with extremely slow working Internet connection, welcome to Cambodia!
13-11-08
With the ferry we left Khong Island for a transfer day. First stop at Khon Phaphang (water) Falls, Laos' widest in the Mekong river.
We continued to the Laotian-Cambodian border. We already had our visa and with a $ 1 bribery each, the formalities went quickly.
Good lunch stop at a wood-smugglers hangout on the way : our local guide told us that the locals illegally cut wood and in order to escape the police they are ready to kill people standing in their way if they drive with their speeded-up car. Such a car was parked next to the restaurant ....
The road conditions are getting less: the infrastructure in Cambodia - one of the poorest countries in the world - is bad. Sometimes we crossed bridges with big holes in it; if the driver is not paying attention to it ... anyway, our driver is very careful, so not a single moment we were afraid.
We stayed for 2 nights in an eco-lodge 6 kilometres from the small village Banlung: electricity only from 6 pm to 9 pm; plus limited solar energy; unfortunately not working anymore the 2nd night. No hot water and not so clean bedsheets.. Banlung is in North-East Cambodia, not so touristy. Excellent dinner in the village.
14-11-08
Beautiful weather again, not humid. With 8 of us and a local guide we went out for the day to visit some ethnic minorities: Kreung, Tompuon and a Chinese settlement. We drove with 2 land cruisers, compulsory for this time even more terrible road conditions; roads with big holes, mud, etc. Unimaginable how to drive here during the rain season.
With a small boat - happy that we did not fell in the water - we crossed the Sesan-river to go to Vengsai. Interesting to visit the cemetery of the Tompuon animists (they believe in spirits); so no Buddhists; they bury their deaths. After fix periods they organise a memorial service with music, mourning and food. We were invited to assist to one of these (very informal) services. They also decorate the tombs with wooden sculptures often representing human beings.
Simple lunch on an island in the river with chop sticks made on the spot from bamboo shoots.
Surprising to see that the Chinese settlement was much tidier than the Laos villages: like in lot of other places in the world, the Chinese people are in charge of the business.
With 4 of us we managed to organise a taxi at the eco-lodge, i.e. the manager authorised his staff to use his car to drive us to the village to enjoy our best dinner ever (of these holidays) for $ 17 for the 2 of us. In Cambodia we pay everything in $ and if any change in $ is available one gets his change in $; if not you get your chance in riel = the local currency : 4.000 riel = 1 $.
15-11-08
We were supposed to stay another night in the eco-lodge and to walk around today. However, since it rained yesterday evening, walking would be very tough, so we all decided to shorten our stay with one day and to leave 1 day earlier for Kratie. To get there we partly had to take the same road of 2 days ago. Lunch stop in another unknown place, but fried rice or noodles with vegetables is always acceptable.
Arjan & I started eating pork, chicken, beef and fish; but such stays an adventure in these countries. We visited this morning the local market of Banlung and we decided definitely not to eat any snail: they were laying down in the full sun.. No further details about the conservation and treatment of fish and meat; let me resume it by saying that it is colourful...... So far, so good, everybody in the group is doing fine.
Our Dutch guide however was invited yesterday morning by the boss & his family of our Banlung guides and enjoyed a local breakfast. Well he did not enjoy it at all: though he is used to the local food, he said that it was uneatable: the leftovers of the good parts of any animal; stuff like that. I saw our local guides eating beef stomach for lunch, interesting, but not for us!
We arrived in Kratie around 4.15 pm, so some time left to explore the city by foot (sunset at 5.30 pm). There is supposed to be a rich legacy of French-era architecture in the (Mekong) riverside town counting 79.000 inhabitants, but we qualified it as being very sad: run out houses, bad streets, muddy, poor looking.....
Our hotel seems to be OK and this time we really appreciate such after 2 days in the 'jungle' without electricity.. It is humid here, we are now sitting in a bar with our Dutch guide and 2 fellow travellers. I hope they made a restaurant choice: I am ready for some nice food!
A&I - 15-11-08 - Kratie, sticky & humid
(Trijnie: geen eten of drank; maar wel een andere lokale verrassing. Het ziet er goed uit; advies opgevolgd!)
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
Khong Island 12-11-08
11-11-08
The train journey went very well. The half hour too late departure has been caught up during the night. It was not as colourful as I am used to in India, no conversation with local people - which is anyway hard because we hardly meet any people talking English - this is also due to the composition of the train cars; but it was clean and well organised. Arjan slept pretty good and I think I slept maybe 5 minutes.....
At arrival in Ubon Ratchathani, a bus took us to the Thai-Laotian border at Khamsing Pathoumxath, very simple border place; everything went quite smoothly. An other - Laotian - bus took us down to our next place of stay. On the way we made some stops for money change (for a day we felt almost like millionaires with the Laotian "kips" ....), lunch, and a visit to the Wat Phu.
Wat Phu is a small temple often compared with the Angkor era sites in Siem Reap (Cambodia), the famous ones we will visit later on this trip. Nice to visit this quiet place, hardly any tourists. We could get used to the very steep steps, frightening for Ingrid, but left alone by Arjan :-(( she had to go the way down on her own and she did it!!
To get there we had to take another simple van and a ferry to cross the Mekong river. The way back on the ferry was quite a surprise, we took a very simple ferry - certainly not authorised by the European security reglementation - a kind of wooden motorised "vlot" (sorry, we do not know the English word..), fun!
Another 2 hours of driving and another ferry to cross the Mekong again to get to Khong Island, 1 of the 4.000 islands of Si Phan Don.
So far the quality of our accommodation is OK, large rooms, good beds, electricity, this time no hot water. Today we could join an excursion, but being the single full day of our stay in Laos, we decided to spend it on ourselves and rented a bike to tour around the island. Pretty tough on too small bikes in over 30 C, but absolutely worth to suffer the 50 km! Lots of temples, monks, beautiful scenery (the rain season just finished, so everything is very green), rice farmers busy harvesting, buffels, ducks grazing the rice paddies, school kids yelling Sawadee (= Hello). That was so cute that Ingrid fell from her bike which frightened more the school kids than herself. She is doing fine, some superficial scratches ...
Tomorrow off to Banlung where we will stay for 3 nights, probably overthere no Internet.
A&I - Khong Island - hot & bright blue sky !
The train journey went very well. The half hour too late departure has been caught up during the night. It was not as colourful as I am used to in India, no conversation with local people - which is anyway hard because we hardly meet any people talking English - this is also due to the composition of the train cars; but it was clean and well organised. Arjan slept pretty good and I think I slept maybe 5 minutes.....
At arrival in Ubon Ratchathani, a bus took us to the Thai-Laotian border at Khamsing Pathoumxath, very simple border place; everything went quite smoothly. An other - Laotian - bus took us down to our next place of stay. On the way we made some stops for money change (for a day we felt almost like millionaires with the Laotian "kips" ....), lunch, and a visit to the Wat Phu.
Wat Phu is a small temple often compared with the Angkor era sites in Siem Reap (Cambodia), the famous ones we will visit later on this trip. Nice to visit this quiet place, hardly any tourists. We could get used to the very steep steps, frightening for Ingrid, but left alone by Arjan :-(( she had to go the way down on her own and she did it!!
To get there we had to take another simple van and a ferry to cross the Mekong river. The way back on the ferry was quite a surprise, we took a very simple ferry - certainly not authorised by the European security reglementation - a kind of wooden motorised "vlot" (sorry, we do not know the English word..), fun!
Another 2 hours of driving and another ferry to cross the Mekong again to get to Khong Island, 1 of the 4.000 islands of Si Phan Don.
So far the quality of our accommodation is OK, large rooms, good beds, electricity, this time no hot water. Today we could join an excursion, but being the single full day of our stay in Laos, we decided to spend it on ourselves and rented a bike to tour around the island. Pretty tough on too small bikes in over 30 C, but absolutely worth to suffer the 50 km! Lots of temples, monks, beautiful scenery (the rain season just finished, so everything is very green), rice farmers busy harvesting, buffels, ducks grazing the rice paddies, school kids yelling Sawadee (= Hello). That was so cute that Ingrid fell from her bike which frightened more the school kids than herself. She is doing fine, some superficial scratches ...
Tomorrow off to Banlung where we will stay for 3 nights, probably overthere no Internet.
A&I - Khong Island - hot & bright blue sky !
Monday, 10 November 2008
Bangkok 10-11-08
Hi all,
An hour left before the departure of our night train from Bangkok to Ubon (border place between Thailand and Laos) , departure time 20.30, expected arrival time 7.30 tomorrow morning if no delays happens, which seems to be quite frequently.
Both Arjan & I had a good flight. Arjan made yesterday with the group a bike tour through the city (Chinatown, klongs = canals, alleyways, ...) before returning to the hotel (very convenient, unexpected luxury one!), where I waited for him. I arrived 5 hours after Arjan's flight and made a short trip on my own to Vinanmek Teak Mansion, the world's largest golden teak building. Getting dark at 17.30 I wanted to be back before in the hotel being afraid to get lost such a very 1st day after such a very long flight. I could not find a taxi, but I knew that the hotel was close by, so I returned by foot. And yes, it is hot, and yes it is humid, but that's part of the deal: better to accept it, than to complain about it.
After a good night sleep, we've made a relaxed day by visiting some of Bangkok's highlights, like the Grand Palace, amazingly rich and colourful decorated, the Wat (= temple, remember this word) Phra Kaew showing the Emerald Budhha, the Wat Pho - the largest and oldest temple of Thailand - exhibiting the largest declining Buddha of Thailand. We were pleasantly surprised by the perfect condition of all the buildings and statues. Because of the decease of the sister of the King of Thailand - the longest reigning king of the world since 61 years - a period of mourning has been declared for 3 months so not everything is always open. The King's sister seems to be cremated in 3 days, so we are leaving just in time, before the city gets crazy.
At arrival tomorrow morning we have to travel another 7 hours, quite exhausting all together.
Our tour guide seems to be OK, a young Dutch man married to a Thai woman, living here, speaking the language,.. Personally I hardly met the other group members, time enough this night and tomorrow during the long voyage!
Stay well !!
Ingrid & Arjan - Bangkok Nov. 10th 2008 - hot & humid even at 20.00 !
An hour left before the departure of our night train from Bangkok to Ubon (border place between Thailand and Laos) , departure time 20.30, expected arrival time 7.30 tomorrow morning if no delays happens, which seems to be quite frequently.
Both Arjan & I had a good flight. Arjan made yesterday with the group a bike tour through the city (Chinatown, klongs = canals, alleyways, ...) before returning to the hotel (very convenient, unexpected luxury one!), where I waited for him. I arrived 5 hours after Arjan's flight and made a short trip on my own to Vinanmek Teak Mansion, the world's largest golden teak building. Getting dark at 17.30 I wanted to be back before in the hotel being afraid to get lost such a very 1st day after such a very long flight. I could not find a taxi, but I knew that the hotel was close by, so I returned by foot. And yes, it is hot, and yes it is humid, but that's part of the deal: better to accept it, than to complain about it.
After a good night sleep, we've made a relaxed day by visiting some of Bangkok's highlights, like the Grand Palace, amazingly rich and colourful decorated, the Wat (= temple, remember this word) Phra Kaew showing the Emerald Budhha, the Wat Pho - the largest and oldest temple of Thailand - exhibiting the largest declining Buddha of Thailand. We were pleasantly surprised by the perfect condition of all the buildings and statues. Because of the decease of the sister of the King of Thailand - the longest reigning king of the world since 61 years - a period of mourning has been declared for 3 months so not everything is always open. The King's sister seems to be cremated in 3 days, so we are leaving just in time, before the city gets crazy.
At arrival tomorrow morning we have to travel another 7 hours, quite exhausting all together.
Our tour guide seems to be OK, a young Dutch man married to a Thai woman, living here, speaking the language,.. Personally I hardly met the other group members, time enough this night and tomorrow during the long voyage!
Stay well !!
Ingrid & Arjan - Bangkok Nov. 10th 2008 - hot & humid even at 20.00 !
Saturday, 8 November 2008
08-11-08
Dear all,
My suitcase is packed, so I just have to close my front door behind me to really start this trip, a new adventure in a new Asian country: Cambodia! My plain will take off at 19.35 from Paris Charles De Gaulle airport; Arjan his plain left already from Amsterdam Schiphol airport at 14.35.
I will arrive tomorrow after an 11 hours flight in Bangkok (Thailand) at 12.25 local time (time difference of 6 hours). It is not my first stay in Thailand; I was there in 1999 for a 3 weeks trip, this time I will stay only 1 day before continuing by night train for 2 days in Laos. I spent in 1999 a very good day at my own in Bangkok at the end of those holidays. Being in such a big rather unknown city at the start of a holidays is something else and quite impressing: besides of the rather rude change of climate, it always takes me some time to feel comfortable in such a different environment, culture and living standard (exception: Japan; there one can drop me wherever and I will feel OK!). I will meet Arjan only in the evening at 19.00 in the hotel, so I have to spend some time on my own. Do not worry, I will find my way around!
Difficult to say how frequent our reports will be. The infrastructure in Cambodia seems to be rather poor, electricity is not always part of it or guaranteed, so right now I have none idea about the presence and quality of Internet cafés which we need to keep this weblog.
I hope that the financial crisis will recover during our absence, things were tough last month and even this week, but it needs to recover one day, doesn't it!?
Oh, just to make you longing for better days: weather forecast Bangkok tomorrow sunny and 30C, humidity 89%; Phnom Penh coming days sunny and just below 30C, humidity 75% …
Amicalement, Ingrid - Courbevoie - sunny day
My suitcase is packed, so I just have to close my front door behind me to really start this trip, a new adventure in a new Asian country: Cambodia! My plain will take off at 19.35 from Paris Charles De Gaulle airport; Arjan his plain left already from Amsterdam Schiphol airport at 14.35.
I will arrive tomorrow after an 11 hours flight in Bangkok (Thailand) at 12.25 local time (time difference of 6 hours). It is not my first stay in Thailand; I was there in 1999 for a 3 weeks trip, this time I will stay only 1 day before continuing by night train for 2 days in Laos. I spent in 1999 a very good day at my own in Bangkok at the end of those holidays. Being in such a big rather unknown city at the start of a holidays is something else and quite impressing: besides of the rather rude change of climate, it always takes me some time to feel comfortable in such a different environment, culture and living standard (exception: Japan; there one can drop me wherever and I will feel OK!). I will meet Arjan only in the evening at 19.00 in the hotel, so I have to spend some time on my own. Do not worry, I will find my way around!
Difficult to say how frequent our reports will be. The infrastructure in Cambodia seems to be rather poor, electricity is not always part of it or guaranteed, so right now I have none idea about the presence and quality of Internet cafés which we need to keep this weblog.
I hope that the financial crisis will recover during our absence, things were tough last month and even this week, but it needs to recover one day, doesn't it!?
Oh, just to make you longing for better days: weather forecast Bangkok tomorrow sunny and 30C, humidity 89%; Phnom Penh coming days sunny and just below 30C, humidity 75% …
Amicalement, Ingrid - Courbevoie - sunny day
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